A draft New York legislation proposes the use of a roadside phone analyzer by police authorities, to enable them to cope effectively with the increasing perils of distracted driving, particularly texting while driving.

The proposed legislation will give New York State police authorities the ability to examine smartphones for "signs of use" at the scene of an accident. The "signs of use" of handsets at accident scene will be examined by the police with the help of a so-called 'Textalyzer' technology developed by Israel-based forensics firm Cellebrite.

The key objective behind the proposed New York legislation is to equip the police authorities with the requisite resources for identifying drivers who have caused an accident because they were texting, or otherwise using their smartphones, while driving.

Specifically speaking, the legislation which is currently in works in New York State "provides for the field testing for use of mobile telephones and portable electronic devices while driving after an accident or collision."

As such, the proposed legislation requires the drivers involved in an accident to hand over their smartphones to the police for roadside testing. Any kind of non-compliance on the part of the drivers would lead to an automatic suspension of their license.