Safety
1Cell Phones and Driving Are Bad for Business
Until the next generation of 鈥渟mart cars鈥� that drive themselves override and compensate for the carelessness of this generation鈥檚 smartphone users, responsible waste haulers must help prevent DWD by instituting and enforcing policies banning cell phone and texting while driving.
Todd Clement
In light of the storm of technology that is fueling the public鈥檚 insatiable appetite for instant connection with each other and the world, Driving While Distracted, DWD, is becoming the new DWI with deadly consequences. The largest culprit in the distracted driving epidemic is cell phone use and texting (including e-mailing) while driving. In 2010, the National Safety Council (NSC) estimated that 28 percent of all U.S. accidents鈥攁lmost 1.6 million crashes鈥攚ere caused by drivers using cell phones and texting.
Employer Awareness
Cell phone use and texting while driving causes drivers to suffer from impaired visual scanning, inattention blindness, impaired ability to react appropriately and impaired situational awareness. Surprising to many, this risk is present whether the driver is using hand-held or hands-free devices because the act of talking on a cell phone is a cognitive distraction.
Waste haulers should be particularly aware and concerned about DWD. In 2008 alone, distracted driving crashes cost $40 billion. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration estimates on-the-job crashes cost employers $24,500 per crash, $150,000 per injury and $3.6 million per fatality.Under the laws of most States, employers are liable for any distracted driving accident caused by the negligence of its employees while on the job and employers can be held independently liable for gross negligence and punitive damages if they do not have an enforced ban on cell phone use while driving.
Juror Reaction to DWD
Some argue: 鈥淗ow can our company be punished for something everyone, including the vast majority of jury members, do themselves?鈥� The answer is simple.聽Cell phone use is the one activity most jurors think they can do safely, but which they very much do not want others to do. Recent research has indicated that jurors deliver large verdicts when they are motivated by self-preservation and protecting their children. Why do collisions which involve cell phones and texting while driving, create a perfect storm for such verdicts? The answer comes to the universally positive response to three simple questions:
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Have you ever observed another driver driving dangerously while using a cell phone?
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Have you ever been personally afraid of the driving of a driver on a cell phone?
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Do you think that it is extremely dangerous to read or write a text or email while driving?
Jurors correctly believe that by returning a sizable verdict, they can motivate others to be safer and help prevent the one dangerous activity that they perceive threatens them and their children the most on our roadways. This point is aptly illustrated by a recent Texas verdict against Coca Cola for 1$21,544,873, including $10,000,000 in punitive damage. In this case, a delivery driver caused a collision while on the phone. The significance of this verdict is not just the amount, but the fact that the Coca-Cola driver was talking hands free at the time of the collision and the victim was not killed or paralyzed by the collision, she only suffered a significant back injury requiring surgery.
Landmark studies by Dr. David Strayer have shown that cell phone use鈥攄ialing, answering, and talking鈥攈as the same risk of a crash as driving while intoxicated at the legal level of .08, approximately 4 times that of normal driving. The risk with texting and e-mailing while driving is much worse. Imagine how a jury would react if they knew a company regularly knew about, encouraged and even profited from its employees driving while intoxicated? As a practical matter, that is what you do every day when you fail to ban and even encourage and profit from their employees鈥� cell phone use and texting while driving on the job.
Waste Hauler Employer Responsibility
My father-in-law was a supervisor for a waste hauling company for more than 30 years so I have a unique appreciation for this mobile business. Your drivers are constantly exposed to unexpectedly stopped traffic, careless children at play on residential streets and alleys, bad drivers that cut in front of your drivers and other hazards that require prompt response to avoid a catastrophe. Cell phone use while driving dramatically reduces reaction times and that combined with heavy trash trucks results in severe collisions and catastrophic injuries. Consequently, risk management by way of DWD accident prevention has to be a priority for any waste hauler to financially survive.
The only responsible option for you to protect your ongoing livelihood (and the public) is a total ban on your drivers鈥� cell phone use and texting while driving. The National Safety Council has a free downloadable employer鈥檚 cell phone policy and education kit located at http://nsc.org/safety_road/Distracted_Driving/Pages/EmployerPolicies.aspx?VanUrl=cellphonekit
A proper ban, in and of itself, does not insulate your company from responsibility. You must also educate your workforce about your policies and the underlying reasons for them. You must also enforce your policies through stringent penalties, driver monitoring and readily available blocking technology. Without enforcement, you will be guilty of recognizing the significant danger yet addressing it only with a 鈥渓ip service鈥� policy, inevitably causing a strong negative reaction from the jury.
Until the next generation of 鈥渟mart cars鈥� that drive themselves override and compensate for the carelessness of this generation鈥檚 smartphone users, responsible waste haulers must help prevent DWD and the shattered lives it creates by instituting and enforcing policies banning cell phone and texting while driving.
Todd Clement is a Dallas, TX personal injury attorney who is a nationally recognized expert on cell phone and texting while driving accident cases. He is a frequent speaker and interview subject on corporate cell phone policies and cell phone safety. Todd can be contacted through his Web sites, www.clementfirm.com and www.distractionlawyer.com. 聽 聽聽