On behalf of Judy Albanese of Gold, Albanese & Barletti, LLC posted in Drunk Driving Accidents on Friday, April 22, 2016.
The Breathalyzer machine is the gold standard for determining whether a particular driver is too intoxicated by alcohol to operate his vehicle. However, what is the gold standard for determining if a driver was texting while behind the wheel? Shouldn’t officers have a way to detect texting while driving in the same way they detect drunk driving? An Israeli technology firm says that the answer to this question is, yes. The firm wants to create a new kind of technology that would allow police to do just that.
The problem of texting while driving is only getting worse. In fact, experts suggest that the average person who is texting while driving will remove his or her eyes from the road for as many as five seconds at a time. That means that they are driving completely blind, and this increases the chances of getting into a car accident exponentially. Some experts even suggest that texting while driving is much more dangerous than intoxicated driving. For these reasons and more, police are trying as best they can to crack down on texting while driving, but it is still difficult for them to determine whether a violation has occurred in this regard.
Fortunately, a technology firm in Israel claims to be working on a solution to the problem. The firm plans to develop a technology that will allow officers to detect whether texting while driving happened during an accident, while not violating a driver’s personal privacy. This technology would basically give police a yes or no answer as to whether texting happened, but it would not reveal any personal details relating to the driver who is suspected of committing the offense.
If this new technology is successfully developed, police will have a powerful new tool that they can use to enforce the law. Furthermore, plaintiffs injured by texting drivers will have a powerful tool that they can use as evidence to seek financial compensation against the at-fault drivers who hurt them.
Source: The Verge, “Roadside ‘textalyzer’ could help stop distracted driving in New York,” Rich McCormick, April 12, 2016