The Impact Of Technology On Driving Safety
To understand why texting and driving are so prevalent and only increasing in ubiquity, it is imperative to understand the underlying psychology that brings people to text and drive in the first place. The general population knows it is a bad idea, however, there is a lack of visceral fear or other related emotion to drive our decision-making against the action; we think we can do drive and text at the same time. It simply does not feel as dangerous as it truly is. Furthermore, we become conditioned to respond to the feedback received, and when the only feedback we have received so far is that texting and driving have not led to an accident thus yet, we infer that we can do it safely. Since the benefits are extremely marginal (responding to a text) and the dangers are so serious (personal fatality, vehicular manslaughter, or both) it is short-sided to believe that the past will predict the future.
In fact, research shows that there is no benefit to even practicing texting and driving and those who regularly use their cell-phone are no better than those who rarely text and drive. Considering three of four drivers believe they are above average drivers it is continuous to conclude that American drivers are overconfident in their abilities. As more and more of the American population adopt smartphones, combined with the scores of new teenage drivers on the road every year who have grown up immersed in the modern mobile phone technology, already the most impressionable and dangerous drivers on the road, it is no wonder this issue is garnering more and more attention as it injures more people and takes more lives.
Although Florida is increasing the severity of its texting and driving legislation by bringing texting and driving to a primary offense, the law enforcement officer must see the phone in use. It can be extremely difficult to detect such breaking of the law, especially when responding after the fact to crashes involved with texting and driving, where it can be impossible to tell whether the operator of a motor vehicle was using a device before a collision or traffic stop. Introducing legislation to bring existing technology to the law enforcement community will allow officers to easily and immediately discern whether the operator of the motor vehicle was using a personal electronic device while driving. A company named Cellebrite has developed a “Textalyzer” to determine this information. The technology does not view any personal information but tracks the time apps open and swipe and tap on the screen. The owner of the device does not even have to give up possession of the device, instead, a police officer can attach a cord to connect the device to the personal electronic device. Legislation such as this has already been proposed and in committee in several states, such as New York.
A driver’s license is a privilege, and under the granting of that privilege is implied consent, where a motor operator must accept a “breathalyzer” test to test blood alcohol levels. Considering that texting and driving is shown to bring the same impairment as a 0.08 blood alcohol level, it is logical and ethical to treat it with a similar methodology. While technology has had the power to create this very grave danger, it has also led to creation of solutions to aid in combatting distracted driving caused by mobile devices. Florida and other states around the country adopting legislation similar to the aforementioned policies will promote public safety and help to tackle the crisis of senseless loss of life that this impairment causes.
