A recent recommendation to ban all cell phone use while driving has many employers wondering about what they should do when employees drive on the job.
In a move that surprised many, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently urged states to ban all drivers from using cellular technology—including hands-free and Bluetooth sets.
The board can neither pass such a law nor compel states to do so. But it raises a big question: How could employers communicate with mobile workers with no cell phones?
Current State of the Law
We spoke with Matt Howard, CEO of ZoomSafer, which provides technology intended to promote safe driving. Howard reports that 38 states currently regulate drivers’ use of wireless communication, but most ban only texting while driving.
A few states, including Connecticut and California, require drivers to use only hands-free devices.
Furthermore, the federal Department of Transportation issued a rule effective January 3, 2012, that drivers of commercial motor vehicles may not use hand-held mobile phones. They may answer, place, or end a call if they can do so by pushing a single button or using, but not holding, a device within their reach. And the rule has teeth. Howard reports that a driver who violates it can be subject to a fine of $2,700.
Urgent Message to Employers
If a "distracted driver"—the catch phrase for someone who texts or talks on the phone at the wheel—is driving a company-owned vehicle on business and causes an accident that injures or kills someone else, the employer can be found vicariously liable. And, judges are not looking kindly on employees who are reckless because they’re distracted.
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Howard talks about a scary case in which he was involved. A recently hired commercial van driver in Ohio was texting while driving, drove over the median, and killed a 19-year-old college student.
In court, the judge asked whether the employer had conducted a background check and a motor vehicle records review on the driver. The answer was yes to both. Had it checked his cell phone records? No. Those records would have shown that the driver routinely sent 5,000 texts each month.
The employer paid hugely for the accident.
In another case, a train engineer was texting his girlfriend and missed warning signals and lights visible from as much as 450 feet away. Result? He plowed into a train stopped ahead of him, derailing many cars on both trains and injuring scores of people. You can imagine what that’s going to cost his employer!
Hands-Free Doesn’t Solve the Problem
A 2009 study by researchers at the University of Utah reported that "equivalent deficits in driving performance were obtained for users of both hand-held and hands-free cell phones."
Connecticut passed its hands-free law in 2005. But the state had the largest percentage increase in traffic fatalities in the nation between 2009 and 2010, while fatalities nationwide dropped to their lowest number in six decades. And cell phone violations—only for drivers using hand-held sets—skyrocketed to more than 10,000 in 2010.
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Comments Howard, "Fear and greed, unfortunately, drive most of our behavior. Laws won’t do it. Picking up the phone when it beeps or boops is a Pavlovian response."
With 6 million people driving employer-provided vehicles equipped with employer-provided smartphones, "The amount of potential liability is huge," says Howard.
And if the employee is driving a personal vehicle and using a personal cell phone? If his boss texts or calls him about an upcoming sales meeting, and the employee crashes while answering, the employer can be liable for any damage or injuries.
Tomorrow, we’ll continue the discussion with a look at some new technology that could help reduce accident risks related to cell phone use while driving.