Scary picture of who’s on their phones while driving

You might think your staffers and other company employees would know better than texting while driving, especially behind the wheel of company-owned vehicles. 

And chances are you’d probably be wrong to assume that!

A study by the Pew Research Foundation shows adults aren’t far behind teenage drivers when it comes to this dangerous habit:

• 47% of adults who text say they’ve sent or read text messages while driving.

• 49% say they’ve been in a car while the driver was sending or reading text messages.

• 44% of adults say they’d been in a car while the driver used a cell phone in other ways that put people in danger.

For example: browsing the Internet, watching videos, checking email, taking or looking at pictures/videos and even playing games.

Not just texting that’s dangerous

Texting while driving is a hot topic right now as state legislatures debate laws banning the practice or enforce already-passed laws. But talking on a cell phone is plenty dangerous too.

The Pew study paints a scary picture there too:

• 75% of cell phone-owning adults say they’ve talked on their phones while driving. That translates to 61% of all adults.

• 17% say they’ve bumped into another person or object while walking somewhere because they were distracted by talking or texting on their cell phones. That’s about 14% of all American adults.

It’s only a matter of time

There’s only so much you can do about employees who chat or text while driving their own vehicles to or from work.

But you may need to enforce stricter rules for company vehicles.

Reason: It’s only a matter of time before someone gets in an accident while making a work-related text and sues his or her employer.

Make sure department heads and supervisors inform drivers of your policy. And equally important, enforce it when employees break the rules.