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Are
Your Corporate Policies Up to Date?
By
Ralph G. Martinez & Ed Rigsbee
(1024
words)
If
your employee is punching in a telephone number or raising their cell
phone to their ear while driving, you might be liable.
A growing number of states in the USA
and several foreign countries are making it a crime to use a cell phone
while driving unless one’s cell phone operates “hands free” or has a
“hands free” device.
On
July 1, 2008
law enforcement officers in two more states,
Washington
and California, begin writing citations to drivers who do not comply with the “hands
free” cell phone law that became effective on that day.
In California, a ticket now costs a driver that violates the law $25 for the first
offense and $50 for each violation thereafter.
Drivers that are minors are prohibited entirely from using a cell
phone or a “mobile device” while driving. What is your company’s
current, and written, policy on cell phone use while driving on the job?
States
Adopting New Laws
California
and
Washington
State
join
Connecticut, the
District of Columbia, New Jersey, New York, and the U.S. Virgin Islands in completely banning the use of hand-held
cell phones while driving. Even more
states prohibit minors from using a cell phone at all when driving.
Seventeen states and the
District of Columbia
in the
United States
have adopted laws that deny cell phone use to driving minors.
If
you travel outside of the United States, you will recognize a similar pattern. Twenty-five
foreign countries have laws that restrict or completely ban the use of
hand-held cell phones while driving.
Australia, Austria, Britain,
Brazil, Chili, Denmark,
Germany, Greece, Israel,
Ireland, Italy,
Japan, Norway,
Poland,
Portugal,
Philippines,
Romania,
Singapore,
Slovenia,
South Africa, Spain,
Sweden,
Switzerland, Taiwan,
and
Turkey
have taken action to restrict the use of cell phones in cars.
If
your state or country does not restrict using a cell phone in cars, you
can anticipate that soon they will.
The
trend across civilized society is to consider hand-held cell phone use a
driver distraction and a contributing cause of many accidents.
Many states that have not enacted a “hands free” cell phone law
have been gathering collision data where cell phone use was involved.
It is a reasonable that law makers will use this accumulated data
to sell the need for a restriction or ban of hand-held cell phones in
cars. Some states have declined to enact a restrictive use law, but have
defined the use of cell phones in cars as a “careless driving”
or defined the use of a cell phone while driving within the definition of
“distraction.”
Productivity
and Connectedness
Technological
advances improve our productivity and connectedness.
Drivers across the
United States
redeem some of their driving time each day by staying connected with
parents, children, and friends during their commute.
Many also conduct business by telephone during these long commute
or travel times. In decades past,
you would have to pull over to the side of the highway when you found a
telephone booth or a pay telephone. This
may return as the preferred way to stay connected in route, particularly
for driving minors. Technology
may give us advantages, but they sometimes bring unexpected changes in our
lifestyle. The law all over the
world is responding to the increased number of accidents that involve
drivers being distracting on a cell phone. The
law is merely catching up to the new risk introduced by new technology
that has been embraced and exploited by all of us.
Higher
Potential Liability for Employers
The
protection of these new safety laws also creates new risks for you, the
businesses owners and leaders in the
United States
and elsewhere. In most areas
of the
United States
, if an employee violates a safety law while involved in a car accident on
the job, they and their employer may be held negligent, even if they are
otherwise driving well. Generally the concept is referred to as negligence
per se. Lawyers use the principle of negligence
per se as a shortcut to establish liability in law suits to win
damages for people injured in accidents. The new wave of cell phone laws
are safety laws designed to eliminate distractions and prevent accidents.
Depending on the extent of the injuries, this financial risk to an
employer could be very substantial. If the cited employee driver has
violated the cell phone law before, significant punitive damages could be
assessed against the employer. Negligence per se as a principle will be used more frequently in
personal injury cases when a driver was using a cell phone.
Employee
Handbook and Written Policy
As
an employer, you should adopt a written policy and/or amend their employee
handbook to require strict compliance by their employees with the “hands
free” cell phone law that is adopted by their country, state, county or
township, or city by all employees. Many businesses may instruct their
employees not to use cell phones while driving and to let incoming calls
go to voicemail to be returned outside of the car in a safe area. If your
business issues cell phones to its employees, or necessarily requires the
use of a cell phone by its employees, make sure that the cell phones can
be used “hands free.” Note that a cell phone that has a speaker phone
function will not necessarily comply with the law.
Employers who hire employees under age 18 should prohibit their use
of a cell phone in a car. The policy should be acknowledged by employees
in writing and enforced by the company. An
attorney can help your business assess the specific risk to it and how to
protect against that risk with an appropriate policy and implemented
management practice. We have
developed a policy and are helping many businesses protect against this
new risk from this new safety law. Adjusting
to these developments not only will allow you drive more safely on the
highways, but to continue with your business efforts – in both cases,
undistracted.
Copyright
2009 Ralph Martinez & Ed Rigsbee
#
# #
 Ralph
G. Martinez is an attorney and the principal of Martinez Law Group, Inc.,
a California
business and real estate law firm. The members of the firm are
transactional and trial attorneys, serving entrepreneurs and small
business in the real estate, financial services and high tech industries.
Mr. Martinez has been practicing law for 30 years. In addition to his state-wide network of clients, Ralph Martinez
has represented individuals and businesses across the
United States,
Mexico,
Canada, Central America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Mr. Martinez writes a blog
to entrepreneurs and small businesses on the Internet through his website
located at http://www.martinezlawoffice.com.
 Ed
Rigsbee, Certified Speaking
Professional, has been fumbling, bumbling, and stumbling his way
through the organizational mazes of for-profits and non-profits for over
four decades. For the last two decades, Ed has been an observer,
researcher, and teacher; helping organizations of all sizes to build
successful internal and external collaborative relationships. Ed travels
internationally to deliver keynote presentations and workshops on
profitable alliance relationships. In addition to serving as the president
of Rigsbee Research Consulting Group, Ed also serves as the executive
director of a (501 c 3) public non-profit charity. Ed has authored three
books and over 1,500 articles helping organizations to take full advantage
of their potential. Contact Ed, get additional (no charge) resources, and
sign up for his complimentary weekly Effective
Executive eLetter at www.Rigsbee.com.
©
Ralph G. Martinez and Ed Rigsbee 2010. The authors grant reprint
permission to all print and broadcast media on the condition that source
reference is made to the author and the authors’ websites, http://www.martinezlawoffice.com
and http://www.Rigsbee.com.
If reprinted electronically, the authors’ website reference is a
live, clickable reference.
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