According to news reports, Rachael Carlina Woodruff, a nineteen-year-old Kent State University student, was killed on March 22 when her 2001 Pontiac Grand Am was hit by a 2006 Chevrolet cargo van driven by Joshua Morris, 32, an employee of Dara Toy Company, who was texting at the the time of the crash.
Ms. Woodruff’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging Morris’ negligence resulted in the crash. The suit also alleges that Dara Toy Company was negligent when it entrusted Mr. Morris with the vehicle and did not recognize Morris’ “reckless and dangerous propensity” to text while driving.
NOTE: The plaintiff’s claim is fascinating (and downright frightening for employers) because it alleges that the company is negligent NOT BECAUSE they gave Mr. Morris a company-issued cell phone, but PRECISELY BECAUSE they entrusted him with a company vehicle and were oblivious to his habit of using his personal cell phone to text while driving.
Rachael Carlina Woodruff (L)
Legal arguments aside, it is incredibly sad that one young person had to lose a life due to employee distracted driving. What’s even sadder, in my opinion, is the fact that the vast majority of companies in America, just like Dara Toy Company, have failed to take appropriate steps to prevent employees from using phones to text, email, or browse the web while driving on the job.
Given what is known about the dangers of distracted driving, it’s hard to believe that employers are not doing more to proactively prevent company drivers from using mobile phones. Yet the data, as shown in this new survey released this morning, is plain scary:
- 32% of companies have knowledge or evidence of vehicle crashes that occurred as a result of distractions stemming from employee use of cell phones while driving. 50% of companies with >500 drivers have knowledge or evidence of such crashes.
- 7.6% of companies have faced plaintiff’s litigation resulting from damages alleged to have occurred as a result of employee use of cell phones while driving. For companies with >5000 drivers the same statistic is 37%.
- 62% of companies have implemented a written cell phone use policy. Long Haul Trucking and Local Trucking were the most likely to have a written cell phone policy (71% and 83% respectively) while Home and Business Services were least likely (< 50%).
- 53% of companies with a defined cell phone policy claim to enforce the policy in some manner. Interestingly, 25% of respondents who claimed to have a policy declined to answer how such policies were enforced. For companies who did answer the policy enforcement question, 61% said they utilized “post incident” employee discipline to enforce compliance.
So where do we go from here? Perhaps this plaintiff’s attorney said it best, “The only fiscally and morally responsible corporate response to this known danger is a policy banning it coupled with employee education and enforcement through active monitoring and available technology before another person is seriously injured or killed.”