It has been reported that texting while you drive is more dangerous than driving under the influence of alcohol. And while the former is legal in Pennsylvania, the latter is illegal in all 50 states.
"When you're sending a text message, you could be Carl Lewis... there's no reaction time because you're not even watching the road," said
PA Representative Eugene DePasquale (D-York County.)
This week, state lawmakers moved one step closer to changing that. A state house committee approved a bill that would ban texting while driving, and would also make it illegal for someone under the age of 18 to use a hand held cell phone while they drive.
But a new device, made here in the Keystone State, would make that law unnecessary.
"Bans were the first order of business. We believe that the only real prevention, the only solution is pure, total denial of service," said Joe Brennan. Brennan is with the Doylestown, Pa.-based company,
Trinity-Noble.
Brennan's company holds the patent for a technology called Celltinel, which is what powers their product called Guardian Angel.
Brennan demonstrated for CBS 21 News that if Guardian Angel is installed in a vehicle, and the vehicle travels over 10 miles-per-hour, it emits a signal that jams the cell phone.
"My call was dropped," Brennan said after turning Guardian Angel on.
Rep. DePasquale is aware of Brennan's technology, and he supports its development.
"I mean, at the end of the day, even if there is a law, but if somebody is still doing it and the police aren't there to catch them, it's still an incredibly dangerous act," DePasquale said.
But if Joe Brennan or Trinity-Noble attempted to sell you their product they would be in violation of a decades-old law.
The Federal Communications Act of 1934 was established during radio's hey-day. Statute 333 was established to prevent competing radio stations from jamming one another's signals in an effort to boost theirs. It is written as follows:
SEC. 333. [47 U.C.S. 333] WILLFUL OR MALICIOUS INTERFERENCE.
No person shall willfully or maliciously interfere with or cause interference
to any radio communications of any station licensed or authorized by or under this
Act or operated by the United States Government.
But this law is being applied by the Federal Communications Commission to prevent Guardian Angel from being marketed. In response, Trinity-Noble has posted a petition for a rule change on its website.
"It's basically an allowance by the
FCC to let us implement our technology, make it available to the free market on a voluntary basis so that lives can be saved," Brennan said.
DePasquale agrees with Brennan that an exception needs to be made.
"Obviously in 1933, they were not where we are technologically. Clearly this is something for Congress to address," DePasquale said.
One of the primary opponents to this technology that disables cell phones is the cell phone industry itself.
Representatives for
CTIA - The Wireless Association, an international nonprofit organization representing the wireless communications industry, have previously stated that jamming technology is imprecise and unreliable.
"First and foremost we have to realize what we're talking about here is illegal," John Walls, of the CTIA, told the Bucks County Courier Times earlier this year.
Additionally, Walls added, "There are currently a lot of concerns about jamming technologies and how they will most assuredly interrupt legitimate use by consumers."
Brennan said he just wants the opportunity to market his product because of the possibility it could save lives.
"Those side effects by distracted driving and those fatalities are becoming more and more prevalent," Brennan said.
There is a recent precedent for Trinity-Noble's effort to have the 1934 Communications Act updated. Last month, the United States Senate passed the
Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009. It allows states to petition the FCC for the right to jam cell phones inside of prisons.
