Distracted driving should be fought like drunk driving: experts

May 19th, 2016  |  Canadian Business

The ever growing amount of data available at our fingertips at any given moment of the day has improved life in a lot of ways, but road safety certainly isn’t one of them.

Distracted driving has become a major problem all across North America and it’s left lawmakers and public safety experts racking their brains on how to reduce it. Last month, an interesting idea was put forth in the state of New York to treat distracted driving just like we treat drunk driving. What they meant was to give officers the ability to quickly check if people had been using their phones while driving: a “Textalyzer”.

The New York Times described how such a  device could work. In the event of an accident, when officers show up on the scene, they will be able to ask drivers to inspect their phones and see if they’d been used while on the road. Refusing the check could result in similar consequences to refusing a Breathalyzer.

While such a device could indeed make people much more careful about using their phone while driving, the proposed legislation has faced obstacles preventing it from becoming law, including concerns over privacy.

Should the legislation become law, the state of New York would be setting a precedent for the campaign against distracted driving. If results are positive there, it would not be surprising at all to see similar technology and laws make their way up to Canada considering our government’s own efforts to combat distracted driving.