Republican New York State Senator Terrence Murphy and Democrat Assembly Assistant Speaker Felix Ortiz, together with awareness organization Distracted Operators Risk Casualties (DORCs), are attempting to pass a law to combat distracted driving. The law, if implemented, will require police to examine phones at an accident scene to see if the phone was involved in the crash.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, driving a vehicle while texting is six times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reports that 67 percent of drivers still use their mobile phones while behind the wheel.
“I have often heard there is no such thing as a breathalyzer for distracted driving — so we created one,” DORCs co-founder Ben Lieberman said of the law and the hardware required for the testing. “Respecting drivers’ personal privacy, however, is also important, and we are taking meticulous steps to not violate those rights.”
Mobile device forensics vendor Celebrate, made famous by the San Bernardino iPhone 5c unlock saga, is developing the hardware for officers to detect device usage in the field while maintaining the privacy of data stored on the device.
“Cellebrite has been leading the adoption of field mobile forensics solutions by law enforcement for years” said Jim Grady, CEO, Cellebrite, Inc. “We look forward to supporting DORCs and law enforcement — both in New York and nationally — to curb distracted driving.”
Police on the scene will notify those involved in the accident that “the person’s license or permit to drive and any non-resident operating privilege shall be immediately suspended and subsequently revoked should the driver refuse to acquiesce to such field test.” However, it is unclear what Cellebrite’s technology polls for exactly. Also unclear is if a notification pushed by an application, or proximity to a vendor such a Starbucks, will cause the driver to fail the examination.
Senate Bill S6325A is still in committee. A vote is not expected soon, and won’t likely happen until 2017.
