Insurance companies are recommending to their corporate clients that they establish and consistently enforce distracted driving policies prohibiting company workers from texting and talking on their cell phones while driving on the job. Why? Because recent shows have shown a sharp upward trend for injured accident victims suing employers under the legal theory of vicarious liability (respondeat superior) when employees’ distracted driving on the job provided the causes of their wrecks.
One lawyer calls cell phone use and texting the DWI “of the 21st century.” But DWI crimes do not appear to have lost their place as primary generators of fatal crashes and severe injuries, so perhaps we Montgomery County accident lawyers might look for another analogy for cell phone distraction.
A study in the New England Journal of Medicine in the late 1990s revealed that drivers distracted by cell phones showed driving impairments as great as those drivers with blood alcohol content at the legal limit. Another study about 6 years later showed that drivers distracted by cell phones demonstrated driving impairments GREATER than those of drunk drivers.
But in our busy society, where one is often pressed for time, many drivers feel compelled to use the time behind the wheel to catch up on cell phone calls and texts. And more crashes are occurring because of this distracted driving compulsion. Accident victims and accident attorneys alike, such as our Montgomery County accident lawyers, have begun to see the wisdom in placing some of the blame for these accidents where it belongs: with the employers who tacitly encourage employees to make the most of their time behind the wheel and increase productivity through sales calls, client calls, etc.
Insurance companies who pay the claims on behalf of these employers are beginning to feel the pinch of the increased payouts. They’re trying to get employers to look at the issue in terms of their bottom line, if safety concerns alone won’t motivate them to take action against employee cell phone use behind the wheel. If insurance companies also charge much higher premiums for those employers unwilling to establish and enforce such a distracted driving policy, our Montgomery County accident lawyers feel that the higher premiums might finally get the reluctant employers’ attention.