Technology is good until you use it when you shouldn't. Until now the lawmakers were thinking about a new law that will combat the use of phones, notebooks, tablets etc.
We always think that driving car drunk is dangerous, and it really is, but what about texting while driving?! Isn't it dangerous too?!
There are many cases by now and they still occur, in which the drivers were too concerned on writing texts then taking care of the road.
The lawmakers are looking at a bill that will allow police to use a piece of technology to see if a tablet or a phone was used during the accident.
The new device is called textalyzer, and is going to be used by police in their DUI charges. A company called Cellebrite has this type of technology already, this company was rumored to assist on the attempt to break open the San Bernandino shooter's iPhone.
The new legislation will require drivers who have been recently in a crash to submit their cellphones to police for testing. The textalyzer isn't able to read someone's contacts, which means it won't break the rights of people.
The new creation has a story behind, Lobbying group Distracted Operators Risk Casualties pushed for the new law. The group's founder, Ben Lieberman, lost his teenage son to a distracted driver. He couldn't prove that the driver was distracted until he sued for the phone records.
"When people were held accountable for drunk driving, that's when positive change occurred." Lieberman says. "It's time to recognize that distracted driving is a similar impairment, and should be dealt with in a similar fashion. This is a way to address people who are causing damage."
In case you refuse textalyzer to be used on your phone this would result into immediately revoking your license.
If drinking killed 10.000 people in 2014 then according to the Centers for Disease Control about 27 people are killed every day because of distracted drivers.