I recently tweeted the ‘StoptheTexts‘ campaign that was advocating harsher penalties to drivers caught texting while driving. I lamented that it’s sad that harsher punishment appear to be the only way to get drivers to listen. This got me thinking, how can the police even enforce these laws? It’s very difficult to say with certainty if someone’s on their phone, hell they could even just be holding a cookie that’s shaped like an iphone. Well, actually, that very next day I see an article on a new device to catch people texting and driving.
The device apparently functions similar to a radar gun but instead picks up the frequencies emitted by mobile phones. Pretty clever eh? Well maybe. While I’m all for innovation in the area of solving texting while driving, its difficult to see how this will be any better than spotting people silly enough to use their phone and drive. As you may well know, mobile phones are constantly sending out signals, even when they aren’t in use, and hey the driver could even be sensible enough to have an auto-responder while they’re driving that will obviously still be sending signals. Also, I wonder how accurate the device is in discern whether they are picking up the drivers phone or the passenger.
An impasse for this technology? Well, in my ideal world the solution to texting while driving is nothing to do with crime and punishment – but hey, call me a dreamer.