PROVEN LOCAL LAWYERS
HELPING YOU RECOVER

PROVEN LOCAL LAWYERS
HELPING YOU RECOVER

Textalyze this: new device could change distracted driving

by | May 1, 2017 | car accidents

In the aftermath of any car accident, victims and their families can often be frustrated by the amount of time it takes to get any concrete information on the cause of the crash. It takes time to interview witnesses, investigate police reports, reconstruct accident scenes, examine surveillance footage and track down technical information on vehicle performance.

Now, imagine being able to get answers in a matter of minutes instead of weeks or months. This is the claim made by the developers of something called a “textalyzer,” which can provide information almost immediately in the wake of distracted driving accidents.

As noted in reports, the textalyzer is a device that police can theoretically plug into someone’s phone to get data on the apps that were open and in use in the minutes and seconds before an accident. In other words, police would be able to see if a person was using a messaging app, the Internet, email or their phone’s camera at the time of a crash.

This would be a considerable resource in helping police and other parties confirm or rule out phone distraction as the cause of an accident in as little as 90 seconds.

However, there are concerns that this type of technology could put people’s privacy at risk. While the developers of the textalyzer argue that their device cannot download information, allowing police to view people’s phones and activity after an accident has made critics wary of embracing this technology just yet.

More development is needed, and the impact a textalyzer would have on a driver’s civil liberties must still be examined. This device is not approved for use in Kentucky or any other state just yet, but interest in this technology and putting it to use is very high in multiple states.

What do you think? Could textalyzers be effective tools in combating distracted driving, or do the concerns regarding privacy outweigh the benefits?