Rich Hauswirth
Take out your cell phone or other wireless device and read the last text message you received out loud. Now, ask yourself the question: “would reading this message or responding to it from behind the wheel of a moving vehicle be worth the risk of getting into an accident or worse?” Chances are, it could wait!
That’s what corporate America is saying to its employees who drive company owned vehicles or use their personal vehicles for company business. In fact as a result of a recent accident settlement, a Fortune 500 company told their own employees to turn off ALL personal electronic devices while driving, PERIOD!
A recent court case involved an employee using a company owned cell phone while driving down a highway. The employee was texting and according to police records, the driver did not even see that there was a traffic slow down and hit the car in front. The collision pushed the vehicle into the ditch on the right side of the road, overturning it so that the driver’s side hit and then slid along the roadway — with the driver’s arm trapped between the door and the asphalt. Medical complications eventually forced the injured driver, a widowed mother of four, to have her arm amputated almost up to the shoulder. Police records also revealed that the employee had set her cruise control at 77 miles per hour — in a 70 mph speed zone.
The fact that the company employee was texting on the cell phone and was exceeding the speed limit allowed the lawyers to seek punitive damages in the suit. What’s interesting to note here is that the courts are finding the employer of the person “texting” just as much at fault as the individual who was driving. The settlement in this case amounted to $5.2 Million.
Various State Bar Associations are showing settlements which have recently been as high as $15 to $20 million dollars where accidents involved “texting” and consistent cell phone use. Katherine L. McArthur, a practicing attorney in the State of Georgia and spokesperson for the Georgia Bar Association said she has seen studies showing that cell phone use while driving may actually cause drivers to exhibit greater impairments than those who are legally intoxicated. She also cited statistics from Human Factors, the journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, indicating that cell phone distraction causes 2,600 deaths and 300,000 injuries in the United States each year.
As of December 30, 2009, federal employees have been banned from texting while driving government-owned vehicles or with government-owned equipment following an executive order signed by President Obama. In Addition, the latest in a series of actions to curb distracted driving, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has announced it is prohibiting truck and bus drivers from sending text messages while operating commercial vehicles. The ban, which is effective immediately, means that truck and bus drivers who text while driving commercial vehicles may be subject to civil or criminal penalties of up to $2,750, the DOT said