Distracted Driving, And What You Can Do About It … (Excerpted from Automotive Fleet)

A recap of the driver distraction menace, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT):

Using a cell phone use while driving, whether it’s hand-held or hands-free, delays a driver’s reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent. (Source: University of Utah)

Driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent. (Source: Carnegie Mellon)

80 percent of all crashes and 65 percent of near crashes involve some type of distraction. (Source: Virginia Tech 100-car study for NHTSA)

Nearly 6,000 people died in 2008 in crashes involving a distracted or inattentive driver, and more than half a million were injured. (NHTSA)

On any given day in 2008, an estimated 800,000 vehicles were driven by someone who used a hand-held cell phone at some point during their drive. Other distracting devices behind the wheel include mp3 players, personal digital assistants, and navigation devices. (U.S. DOT)

Drivers who use hand-held devices are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves. (Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)

A new DOT Web site, Distraction.gov pulls together statistics, facts, and other resources to create awareness and better understanding of distracted driving’s dangerous realities.

What Employers Can Do

Use President Obama’s Executive Order banning texting and driving for federal employees as a template to develop an organizational policy for employees. Send a strong, unequivocal signal to employees that distracted driving is dangerous and unacceptable.

Create a culture of safety. Clearly communicate to employees they are expected NOT talk or test on cell phones while driving on company time or in company vehicles. Ensure employees who wait for a safe opportunity to take or return a call or text do not incur negative consequences for their safe-mindedness.

Conduct informal observational surveys of cell phone use at the entrances and exits of your company. Publicize the results to reinforce distracted driving policies. Provide small incentives such as coupons, music download cards, special privileges, etc., to employees observed driving distraction-free.

Have employees sign a contract indicating they will not violate the organization’s ban on texting and driving. Include a provision to advise employees that if a crash occurs, the employer has the right to subpoena the employee’s phone records, and if he/she was using a cell phone when the crash occurred, the crash will be considered preventable and the driver will assume all financial responsibility.

Visit the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety’s (NETS) Web site to see what 24 leading companies are doing about company driver cell phone use. Consider integrating some of these policies into your organization’s cell phone policy.

Become familiar with state laws that ban cell phone use. This information is especially helpful if employees travel across state lines.

Visit the “Stats and Facts” and “FAQ” pages at the DOT’s Distraction.gov site to develop materials to support an outreach and education campaign among employees.

Inform employees who carry work-owned wireless mobile devices their work phone bills will be monitored, and there will be consequences for those who violate the organization’s cell phone policy.

Use a variety of organizational channels to communicate the company’s commitment to safety and health and specifically to the nonuse of cell phones and texting.