Texting drivers beware: The 'Textalyzer' may be coming soon to a cop near you

The number of U.S. road fatalities jumped 8 percent last year after years of decline, according to preliminary National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data, and the NHTSA and other public health and safety experts put part of the blame on "distracted driving." So far, 14 states ban the use of handheld devices behind the wheel, and 44 prohibit texting while driving, but it has been hard to enforce those laws, The New York Times reports. New York is considering a new tool that would make it easier: the Textalyzer.

Based on the breathalyzer test for alcohol, the Textalyzer would allow a police officer responding to an accident to scan the phones of any drivers and determine if the phones had recently been used. If a driver refuses to hand over his or her phone, the New York bill would allow suspending that driver's license for up to a year, the same as with refusing a breathalyzer test. The proposal raises privacy concerns, legal and otherwise. "It really invites police to seize phones without justification or warrant,” said ACLU New York executive director Donna Lieberman.

But the comparison to drunk driving isn't an accident. Distracted driving "is not being treated as seriously as drunk driving, and it needs to be," said Candace Lightner, the founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and a co-founder of a new group, Partnership for Distraction-Free Driving. "It's dangerous, devastating, crippling, and it's a killer, and still socially acceptable." The Breathalyzer is being developed at the behest of Ben Lieberman, whose son, Evan Lieberman, died after a car he was riding in crashed due to, court records suggest, distracted driving.

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