Twitter Account Uses Bot To Provide Driver's Violations In Real-Time

A new Twitter account provides users with information on a driver's infractions in real time just by sending out the person’s corresponding license plate number.

The account, "How’s My Driving," was created by Brian Howald, a New York-based software engineer and safe driver advocate. The page debuted in March and has since gained over 800 followers, reported WPIX, in New York City.

The account is run by a bot that looks up and reports back driving violations issued to the car in question. A tweet explaining how to make a request was pinned to the official Twitter page.

"When you tweet @HowsMyDrivingNY any plate and the state within the next two or three seconds, you will have a response," Howald told the news outlet.

The Twitter page provides users information on other drivers' parking tickets or red-light infractions, but does not include other moving violations, Howald said.

The information provided by the account is comprised of public data made available by NYC’s Open Parking and Camera Violations.

"The city has this open camera and parking violation data it’s about 25 million tickets since the year 2000," Howald explained. "There are violations going back over 17 years and speed camera data, which only started to be issued in 2014, comprise 11 percent of all tickets given since the year 2000, despite the fact its only been in the past four years alone."

Howald said his goal was to put volumes of valuable data within arm’s reach.

"For people who aren’t familiar with databases, it can be daunting at first. So this was created to make it more accessible," he said, adding that the page also aimed to raise awareness and make streets safer by learning the tendencies of careless drivers.

"The tool I wrote doesn’t do anything more than help make it clear to people just how often some people engage in illegal activity," Howald said. "This allows people when they see someone doing something dangerous not report it but to tag it and look up how often does a person do this or do other dangerous things."

Howald’s account comes at a time when motor vehicle crashes are considered the highest cause of injury-related deaths in New York. From 2012 to 2014, an annual average of 1,098 deaths, and 12,093 hospitalizations occurred due to motor vehicle accidents, according to the state’s Department of Health website.