Texting, Cell Phones and Truckers

You want to help your trucker lead the way to safety- how about coming up with a policy to not text, to drive hands-free without a cell phone and commit and write in their safety manual that a driver will not do such things. By the way, it is going to be legislated that way sooner or later and is already law in many states. See why from Teresa Long's article in the Insurance Journal below:

Cell phones, Blackberrys and iPods now infiltrate
work life as well as leisure time. These devices are
affecting job safety, a not-so-good vibration being felt,
literally, from coast to coast.
A Boston trolley driver is distracted while sending a text
message and slams into another car, injuring scores of passengers.
Even more horrific is the operator
of a commuter train in Los
Angeles who, while looking down to
send a text message, hits another
train and kills 20 people.
Virginia Tech Transportation
Institute researchers revealed that a
trucker looking down while texting
for a mere six seconds while motoring
at 55 miles per hour will travel
the length of a football field, and not
realize he traveled so far, so fast.
No longer is it only intoxicated drivers who are dangerous, it
is the “intexticated” drivers, as well.
The Harvard Center of Risk Analysis estimates that cell
phone activity contributes to 636,000 motor vehicle crashes,
330,000 injuries, and 2,600 fatalities each year. Although it’s hard
to put a number on how many of those are work-related, it is
safe to say employers need to be aware of potential ramifications.
A few years ago a company settled for $16 million because
one of its salespeople killed a person when driving while talking
on a cell phone.
Some businesses have already banned cell phones. They
understand the potential liability. Unfortunately, there are still
employers who fail to realize the urgency of the matter. Too
many believe that salespersons or the local delivery persons
can’t work fast enough unless they are multi-tasking.
But it’s time to wake up and smell the risk. Because most
assuredly the insurance company and their underwriters are
standing downwind and it’s only a matter of time before they
start sniffing around to see if employers have language in place
prohibiting the use of cell phones while driving.
Several politicians and the American Transportation
Association have already introduced legislation aimed at banning
texting while operating a vehicle. The proposed bill will
penalize states in violation of the law with the risk of losing 25
percent of their federal highway funding.
It’s not only the inappropriate use of cell phones that’s causing
undo risk, it’s also injuries to workers listening to iPods
while on the job. It’s when an employee is listening to ABBA
instead of a listening to a co-worker yelling out a warning or
hearing the beep-beep-beep of a forklift backing up. One aerospace
manufacturer took a proactive approach by banning 1,500
of its employees from using iPods at work, even though there
have been no incidents.
Human resources departments need to
know the ramifications of the new technology
in the workplace, put specific policy
language into the employee handbook,
properly train employees, and vigorously
enforce those policies. By doing
so, they can protect themselves from liability
by showing that the employee
knowingly violated a written safety rule.
Companies are putting themselves at
risk should a distracted employee be
involved in an accident. Plus, it is very
likely that there would be a workers’ compensation claim.
We can’t idiot-proof the world. But we can add protection in
the workplace and for the public. Nothing drives home this
point better than the story of a 25 year old truck driver from
upstate New York who was talking on a cell phone with one
hand and texting with the other. He
came up one hand short and lost control
of his vehicle, careened across a
front lawn and plunged his truck into
a swimming pool, injuring a woman
and her 8 year-old niece.
We can only hope that the company
he worked for had the foresight to
have an up-to-date policy on the do’s
and don’ts of the new technology.
Because recent cases have shown language
is not enough. The company
must also show it has enforced the
policy and properly educated the
employee.