Distracted Driving: DOTs Stance on Electronic Use

By: Jordan Kleyla

October 2015

Vehicle crashes are a major concern for employers that operate businesses that involve traveling.  Whether or not an individual is traveling for business or leisure, overall awareness of the road and other drivers should always come first.  Distractions are nearly impossible to avoid as they come from just about every avenue imaginable while driving.  Those distractions include, but are not limited to:

• Cell phone/Smartphone use
• Adjusting the radio or CD player
• Navigation devices
• Eating and drinking
• Other occupants
• Road signage and billboards
• Daydreaming
• Fatigue

Not only is it a best practice to care about the safety and health of employees, but crashes involving employees costs employers billions of dollars every year.  It is estimated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that those traffic incidences involving employees cost businesses approximately $60 billion dollars annually.  The NHTSA also states that the average cost to the employer of a general crash without injury is $16,500, while crashes involving injuries cost approximately $74,000, and upwards of $500,000 for those accidents involving a fatality. 

With the exception of eating and drinking, cellphone usage makes up the greatest percentage of distracted driving activities correlated to vehicle crashes.  With the versatility of today’s smartphones, activities such as texting, reading a text message, surfing the internet, talking on the phone, and emailing are all distractions to drivers.  The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) states, “Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting.  When traveling 55mph, that’s enough time to cover the length of a football field blindfolded.”  Many sources also recognize that cellphone use while driving can be more hazardous than those who illegally drive intoxicated. 

DOTs Stance

President Obama, in September of 2009, signed an executive order stating that federal employees are unable to text and drive while operating government owned vehicles, utilizing governmental supplied electronics while driving, and during governmental business while driving a privately owned vehicle.  Commercial bus and truck drivers were banned to text and drive in September, 2010 and were later banned from using any hand-held cellphone device in November of 2011.  Drivers transporting hazardous materials were banned from texting and driving in February of 2011, and locomotive operators of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) have been banned from using any and all electronic devices while on the job since a multiple fatality incident happened in September, 2008.

Mitigation

Despite the use of electronic devices being banned, safety professionals observe rules and regulations being broken every day.  Statistics of crashes due to distracted driving while on the job support this claim.  In order to change the behavior of employees and the overall safety culture of businesses, it is recommended to complete annual driver safety training and hold awareness seminars regarding distracted driving and electronic use on the road.  Additionally, with today’s technology, employers are able to download applications through their smartphones and have them linked to their employees’ company issued phone that will alert them when they are operating the device while driving. 

Creating a system of checks and balances is not always well received in the work-place, but neither is a fine, injury, or fatality.  As an employer, the safety and health of the employees should always be of first and foremost importance.  With the statistics found concerning work related vehicle accidents, the hazards created from cellphones and other electronic use simply are not worth the risk, and a risk employers should not be willing to take.