As part of a 2015 distracted driver survey, the Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety collected direct observations of distracted driving behavior. In this survey they found that 29.13% of drivers would be considered a distracted driver, citing rear passenger interaction as the biggest distraction to drivers, right ahead of both cell phone handling and cell phone conversations.
Seeing as how distracted driving is becoming more and more common, changes may be coming, and it appears to be making it’s start in New York state.
Pushed by the lobbyist group Distracted Operators Risk Casualties (DORCs), a New York State Senate committee is considering a bill that would help police officers determine if a driver had been using smartphones near the time of a collision. The bill is known as “Evan’s Law” and would provide law enforcement with a “Textalyzer,” a device that an officer can plug into a smartphone and instantaneously find out if the driver’s phone had been used to text, surf the web, or make a call around the time of the accident. No warrant would be required of the police officer and it has been proposed that if the driver refuses to hand over their smartphone, their driving privileges can be severely affected.
