When the Boss Calls

The use of cells phones while driving still remains a serious problem as drivers continue to ignore laws throughout the country. Unenforced and unenforceable laws throughout the nation aren't meeting the well intentioned goal of restricting their use. A major excuse is the need to use it for work and my "boss" required the employee to use it.

The epidemic of distracted driving continues to spread. Economic consequences are not yet frequent enough and severe enough to change the culture of abuse. Industry still hasn't taken the bold steps required to solve the problem.

Even though the genie of the "car phone" is out of the bottle, carefully engineered technology can resolve the problem. The same companies that brought us the unhealthy combination of cell phones and distracted driving can engineer the cure.

Employers seem to lack the economic motivation to take action. Employers who insit on their use for employment reasons can be compared to those employers who remove a machine guard to increase production at the cost of injury. It is senseless and tragic to insist that employees are required to us cellphones for employment. It is time that mandatory technology safeguards be implemented to curb abuse and avoid trajic and unnecessary accidents.

Related articles

• Employers Risks Increase From Cell Phone Use (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• National Cell Phone Ban Proposed by Congress (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Distracted Driving Increases Workers' Compensation Risks (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Employers Face Liability For Cell Phone Accidents (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Cell Phones and Cancer: The Static in the Debate (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

Cell Phone Safety and Workers Compensation

Workers' Compensation benefits may soon be denied to employees involved in motor vehicle accidents because of the unauthorized use of cell phones while driving within the course of their employment. As the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) continues to educate Americans with overwhelming statistical evidence that distracted driving is a major cause of accident, the denial of benefits to cell phone users may become a major incentive to create a safer work environment.

Meanwhile, the US Department of Transportation is leaning toward banning all use of cell phones by drivers. At the second national USDOT summit on the increased hazards of the use of cell technology  a major campaign was launched to encourage employers to outright  ban the use of cell phones by employees while working.

Employers have become increasingly concerned over employee "cognitive distraction" caused by the use of cell phones in motor vehicles as more data has become available associating driver cell phone use with accidents. Methods of enforcement will include the use of traffic cameras as the system already hss the capability of detecting drivers who are using telephones while driving. Evidentially, telephone billing records produced post accident can be used to corroborate the fact that an employee was using a telephone while working.

The precedent of using the workers compensation acts to make occupational environments safer is already established. The denial of workers' compensation benefits for unsafe actions by employees has previously been incorporated into law and has been an economic incentively for employers to reduce costs. Employees who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and those who fail to use employer provided safety devices, have already been denied benefits in some jurisdictions.

For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman 1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered work related accident and injuries.

Related articles

• The Trend to Exclude Distracted Driving From Workers' Compensation Coverage 
• No Constitutional Right to Bear Cell Phones Exists (speedofcreativity.org)
• USA Considering Complete Ban on Cell Phone Use in Cars (greenvehiclenetwork.com)
• Ban on Driver Cell Phone Use Considered by Transportation Chief (politicsdaily.com)
• Advocates for In-Car Cell Phone Ban Face Setback (blogs.cars.com)
• Talking to death: texts, phones kill 16,000: study (canada.com)
• NIOSH: Backgrounder of Hazards of Distracted Driving