The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that distracted driving is responsible for about 80 percent of all motor vehicle accidents on American roads. The National Safety Council says cell phone use while driving is a “high risk” activity and a leading cause of inattention behind the wheel.
The National Safety Council (NSC) is so concerned about cell phone safety on the road that it has started a campaign to curtail such use. NSC says that it is on a mission to:
- Alert the public about different kinds of driving distractions and their corresponding levels of crash risk.
- Change American cultural norms so that people come to view cell phone conversations and text messaging while driving as unsafe and socially unacceptable.
What’s more, NSC is calling for a legislative ban on these activities as the first step in a long-term process to educate Americans about the incompatibility of cell phone use and driving.
Is your cell phone policy effective? Do you even have one? If not, we do, and it’s already written and ready to use, along with every other safety policy you’re likely to need, in BLR’s Essential Safety Policies. Examine it at no cost and with no obligation to purchase. Get details here.
DOT Joins the Fight
NSC isn’t the only one up in arms about cell phone use on America’s highways and byways. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is also on the bandwagon.
Here’s an excerpt from LaHood’s August blog:
“When I was home in Peoria a few weeks ago, Alyssa Burns, a 17-year-old high school student was killed when she drove off the road. It turns out she was texting while driving.”
“We’ve all seen the footage of the bus driver who was talking and texting on two cell phones while driving. He smashed into the back of a car, injured the driver, and ended up driving into a swimming pool.”
“The horrific commuter train crash last year in California involved an operator who was too busy texting to pay attention to what he should have been doing. As a result, 25 people were killed and 135 were injured.”
“If it were up to me, I would ban drivers from texting.”
“But we’ve learned from our efforts to get people to wear seat belts and to persuade them not to drive drunk that laws aren’t always enough. Often, you need to combine education with enforcement to get results.”
“The bottom line is, we need to put an end to unsafe cell phone use, typing on blackberries and other activities that require drivers to take their eyes off the road and their focus away from driving.”
Get the safety policies you need without the work. They’re in BLR’s Essential Safety Policies program. Try it at no cost and no risk. Find out how.
How about you? What are you doing to put an end to unsafe cell phone use by your employees on the road? If they drive for your company, their actions on the road could easily become your responsibility in the event of an accident.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll raise some important issues about cell phone policies that can help you review yours, or develop a new one, to more effectively control cell phone use by employees who drive on the job.
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All this sounds well and good safety of the highways and all that but it all seems to be pointed at the everyday to and from work driver not the ones who drive all day as part of their job and have to access onboard computers cell phone and radios such as utilitiy company workers and law enforcement they are just as distracted as anyone more than likely more distracted if laws are good for one group they are good for all so ill put my phone down when they cant look at their computers lead by example i say
Distracted driving is a very serious problem, but one that will not be solved through legislation and education alone. Trying to change user behavior, especially bad habits is very difficult. This is why about a year ago I helped start a company called http://www.zoomsafer.com – a mobile software solution that you can easily download to your phone — amazingly it keeps you focused on the road and not your phone but still connected with friends, family and co-workers.
Yesterday, we listed a number of steps you can take to promote Drug-Free Work Week. Today, we continue with some more ideas for making Drug-Free Work Week a memorable occasion.
Yesterday, we listed a number of steps you can take to promote Drug-Free Work Week. Today, we continue with some more ideas for making Drug-Free Work Week a memorable occasion.