Five Ways Employers Can Help Drivers Stay Focused on the Road
By Virginia Pajarito
Multi-tasking, the need for information at the tip of your fingers and the desire to stay connected are strong forces in today’s society. Unfortunately, if done behind the wheel, it is much more likely that you will be involved in an accident. The U.S. government estimates that 421,000 people were involved in an accident involving a distracted driver in 2012.
What is Distracted Driving?
While the meaning may seem clear, the term distracted driving has been used to characterize dissimilar driver conditions. Some studies use the terms inattention and distraction interchangably. Although daydreaming and drowsiness can be considered inattention, distraction is a specific type of inattention that occurs when drivers focus their attention away from driving to focus on some other task in its place. Therefore, distracted driving is anything that takes your hands, eyes or attention away from driving.
Although there are many potential sources of driver distraction, we can classify distracted driving into three categories:
- Visual—when the driver looks at something other than the road.
- Manual—when the driver takes his or her hands off the wheel.
- Cognitive—when the driver’s mind is engaged in another activity and is no longer paying sufficient attention to what is happening on the road.
The use of a mobile phone while driving often involves all three types of distractions. The driver looks at the phone to make a call or read a text message, handles the phone to make a call or to type a message, and becomes mentally engaged in the conversation or text message discussion.
Various studies have revealed that using a mobile phone impairs driving ability. A University of Utah study found that using a cell phone while driving, whether handheld or hands-free, delays a driver’s reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of 0.08%. Although talking on a cell phone while driving is dangerous, texting, instant messaging and emailing can be much worse. A Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study concluded that people who text and drive are 23 times more likely to be involved in accidents or near-accidents as compared to other drivers.
Employers who require employees to drive as part of their job duties should be aware of the prevalence of distracted driving and should strive to restrict it. The safety of employees and others is the primary concern, but employers should also be aware of the liability exposures distracted driving can create. Lawsuits comprising of employees distracted by cell phones and other devices while driving have resulted in multi-million dollar settlements. Liability cases can be particularly severe for employers that provide employees with or require employees to use mobile phones.
Third-party liability can be sustained based on the legal principle of vicarious liability, or respondeat superior. This legal doctrine provides that an employee was acting within the course and scope of his or her employment at the time the accident occurred, and therefore the employer is held responsible. Furthermore, an employer may be considered negligent for its own conduct if it encourages or permits employees to use cell phones or other hand held electronic devices without adequate training and rules in place with regards to safety.
Given the prevalence and potential severity of distracted driving, what should you do to prevent or minimize distracted driving within your organization?
- Educate your drivers on the importance of keeping their eyes on the road, their hands on the wheel and their minds on the most important task—operating the motor vehicle.
- Define your own policies, in addition to regulations and laws, to curb use of in vehicle devices that draw attention away from the road. Incorporate federal, state and local standards/laws, and develop your policy to exceed those standards and laws.
- Advise drivers to familiarize themselves with the controls and features of the vehicle and set their destination address in the global positioning system (GPS) before departure.
- Set the example. As a leader, do not text, send an email, make a phone call or dispatch while driving. Operationally, resist the urge to justify potentially distracting behavior. As an organization, decisions are made, such as requiring employees to respond to dispatch while on the road, without thinking about the impact on distraction and how the organization is causing those behaviors. If you have employees that drive as a part of their job responsibilities and must contact the person immediately, consider establishing a protocol such as calling the employees phone two times consecutively, which signifies to the driver they need to find a legal and safe place to park and respond to the inquiry.
- Ensure employees are held accountable for following your policies, and do not forget distraction when conducting vehicle accident investigations.
It is clear from other traffic safety concerns such as drinking and driving, speeding and safety belts that consistent enforcement is the best strategy in changing behavior. Laws and policies that prohibit unsafe driving behaviors are essential because they form the basis for a societal response. This map shows the states that currently have laws prohibiting texting and handheld phones.
In addition to the laws above, some states have additional restrictions, some pertaining to novice drivers and bus drivers. For more information, go to: http://www.distraction.gov/content/get-the-facts/state-laws.html or http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/cellular-phone-use-and-texting-while-driving-laws.aspx.
While not an entirely new issue, distracted driving has become a serious highway safety problem that has been increasing in importance with the introduction and use of new sophisticated communications and information technology. Through widespread awareness of the challenges and complexities of this problem, policymakers and employers alike can provide leadership and develop solutions and strategies to reduce death and injury connected with distracted driving.
Virginia Pajarito, Lockton Senior Loss Control Consultant. 213.689.4285/[email protected].
More than 5,600 professionals at Lockton provide 48,000 clients around the world with risk management, insurance, employee benefits consulting and retirement services that improve their businesses.
References
- U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Traffic Safety Facts.”
- National Safety Council, “Understanding the Distracted Brain: Why Driving While Using Hands-Free Cell Phones is Risky Behavior.”
- Governors Highway Safety Association, “Distracted Driving: What Research Shows and What States Can Do.”
- Governors Highway Safety Association, “Distracted Driving: Survey of the States.”
- Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, www.vtti.vt.edu.
- AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, aaafoundation.org.
- Shell Oil Company, shell.com.
