Saying no to driving and dialing

Cellphone policies could protect employers from civil liability

When a Halifax Regional Municipality employee received a ticket when he ran a stop sign while searching for his cellphone, the incident underscored a need for a policy on the use of cellphones while driving for work.

The municipality was developing just such a policy at the time of the incident and a ban on the use of all communication devices — except hands-free, voice-activated ones — while driving went into effect in November 2002. Since then, there hasn’t been a single accident involving a communication device, said the occupational health and safety consultant with the municipality’s transportation and public works services.

“We hope the reason that we haven’t had any incidents since then is that the policy is working and being adhered to,” said Mike MacKenzie, who helped develop the policy. “And there hasn’t been any incidents where an employee was sighted using a cellphone.”

Other organizations have been slowly following the Halifax Region’s example. Last fall, engineering services company AMEC PLC introduced a cellphone-free driving policy for its employees in North and South America. Employees cannot use handheld cellphones or BlackBerrys in the car for company business unless the vehicle has approved hands-free, voice-activated equipment.

However, the view that using a cellphone while driving is an occupational health and safety hazard hasn’t been fully embraced in Canada.

“It hasn’t become a mainstream issue that all employers are pondering,” said Cheryl Edwards, a Toronto-based lawyer specializing in occupational health and safety. “Because there’s not a lot of legislation, we haven’t seen a lot of employers concerned about it.”

Just as violence in the workplace was traditionally considered a criminal matter, cellphone use while driving falls mostly into the purview of traffic codes, said Edwards. However, with employers requiring employees to be constantly available by cellphone or BlackBerry, employers will have to consider the effect this will have on an employee’s safety, she said. “Eventually, if there are sufficient concerns being raised, it will trickle into the occupational health and safety legislation,” said Edwards.

Beyond occupational health and safety concerns, employers could face civil action if an employee gets into an accident because of using a cellphone while driving, she said. The suit could come from the employee or an injured third party.

While there haven’t been any such cases in Canada yet, there have been several in the United States. In one such case, a Virginia-based law firm was slapped with a $30-million wrongful death suit when an employee struck and killed a 15-year-old boy with her car while she was conducting business on her cellphone.

Employers that provide employees with a cellphone or a BlackBerry need to develop a policy for their use, said occupational health and safety consultant Yvonne O’Reilly, especially if employees are driving during the course of their regular duties.

“Once they’re driving and using a cell during work hours, this is part of vehicle safety, as much as having a valid driver’s licence,” said O’Reilly.

Once a policy is in place, it’s important to communicate it clearly and get employee buy-in, she said. This can be as simple as giving employees the choice of what kind of hands-free device they want.

To get the word out, the Halifax Regional Municipality held 90-minute information sessions for more than 1,500 employees to educate them about the dangers of using cellphones while driving and to review the new cellphone policy line by line.

“It was rather well-received,” said MacKenzie. “We gave them the rationale behind it and made the policy as clear to them as possible.”

Except emergency services personnel, such as police, who have other methods of communication, “there’s nobody who works for us who’s that important who has to take that phone call the second it rings,” said MacKenzie.

There is mounting evidence that driving and dialing increases the risk of accidents. The British Medical Journal published a University of Toronto study last year that found drivers talking on a cellphone are four times more likely to crash than those who aren’t using cellphones.

But even going hands-free might not be the answer. A 2002 Transportation Canada study, The impact of cognitive distraction on drivers’ visual behaviour and vehicle control, found a significant amount of the distraction associated with cellphones is due to the mental focus required during conversations, not the act of pushing buttons.


Hands-free
Wireless-free driving tips

The following is a list of tips put together by the employees at AMEC after the engineering services firm introduced its cellphone-free driving policy last fall.

•Plan ahead. Call and send before leaving your desk or getting into your car.

•Most accidents occur at intersections, so don’t be fooled into thinking it’s safe to text message at a stoplight.

•Tell those who regularly call or e-mail that you are not available while in transit.

•Put an “I’m either in a meeting or driving” message on your voice mail.

•Turn off your BlackBerry.

•Turn off your phone.

•Too tempted? Put your wireless device in the trunk of your car.

•Buy a new CD for the car.

•Select relaxing music for bumper-to-bumper traffic to help reduce frustration.

•Become an advocate and encourage other cellphone addicts to hang up.

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