Does your employer allow you to text while driving?
I wrote in Friday’s paper about a favorite topic - texting and driving. While Missouri lawmakers aren’t doing much to curtail the practice (recently making it illegal for anyone under 21 to do it), it looks like employers may be starting to do more.
Last week, President Obama outlawed it for all federal workers. Wireless companies like AT&T and Verizon have similar policies - notable, considering they have a vested interest in people texting as much as possible.
So we have a lot of companies banning texting while driving. I talked to a couple business owners who say any employee caught doing it would be fired on the first offense.
Clearly, employers are worried about their workers engaging in what many consider to be a very hazardous activity. But not nearly as many of them are trying to keep workers from talking on their cell phones while driving - another activity considered dangerous by many, including some highly-regarded researchers.
Are we going to see that change?
Attorney Kelly Scott, a labor/employment expert in Beverly Hills, Calif., almost laughed when I asked. It seems that companies’ concern for their workers’ safety can only go so far. Simply put: Too many workers get too much work done by phone while on the road.
“I just think the business practicality makes that a tough nut to swallow,” Scott said.
But back to texting. I’d love to hear from people whose companies ban or have considered banning texting and driving. What do you think about it? And do you follow the rules? (I have to admit that if mine is among them, I’m not aware of it.)
Tim has covered a wide range of topics, including tourism, crime, aviation and gambling, since becoming a reporter in 1990. The Oklahoma native joined the Post-Dispatch in 2007 after spending nine years in Orlando. In his spare time, he's often exploring one virtual world or another. He can be reached at tbarker@post-dispatch.com. 
Employer liability due to distracted driving is a huge issue. Just in the last year several multi-milliion dollar lawsuits have been settled. Data from NHTSA also shows that the average cost of a crash can range from $25,000 to $128,000 and more than $3,000,000 when there is a fatality. I have just helped start a company called http://www.zoomsafer.com with a specific goal to help enterprises and government agencies reduce their risk and costs associated with distracted driving caused by cellphones.
A Pox on anyone who uses a cell phone while driving.
I don’t text when not driving, so I don’t care. However, I do answer voice calls, but only briefly and from people I know. Interestingly, I’ve had more close calls when not on the phone at all. If I am on the phone, I know I have to concentrate more.
I want to know when the highway designers are going to make telephone pull offs part of the interstate and divided U.S. highway system. Out West, there are pull offs for various reasons…not something I’ve seen east of Kansas.
If pull offs every five miles(or sufficiently wide shoulders) were made part of highway design, then go ahead and legislate whatever you want about cell phones. People aren’t going to give them up. Period. We need to agitate for places to use them safely when traveling, which aren’t 50 miles apart.
The facts are that employers are not police. It is a very sad fact that either are needed by an independent population. The founders envisioned a society based upon farming and land owning. We should each have our stake in this society independent of each other. It is socialistic for employers to act as a legal power toward employees. All are equal in this society and employers have no special powers to police employees. Socialist from the left and the right keep trying to apply police state powers to economic considerations each we supposed legitimate reasons. The facts are that this country was founded with liberty as its base. Those that want a police state should be put on a boat to China.