Employers Urged to Adopt Policies Against Distracted Driving

Federal officials and business leaders said they will join forces to urge employers to adopt policies that discourage distracted driving by employees.

The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Better Business Bureau said they will collaborate to educate consumers and businesses about the dangers of distracted driving and urge businesses to adopt distracted driving policies as part of their employee culture.

The officials said that a distracted driving policy helps companies save lives, reduce time lost from work due to accidents and injuries, reduce insurance premiums, and save money.

“Distracted driving has become a deadly epidemic on America’s roads,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. “We know that educating people about the risk of distracted driving works.”

Stephen A. Cox, president and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, said the national website of the Better Business Bureau will feature a link to a free tool kit that provides employers with suggested distracted driving policies to help keep their employees safe. The kit, created by the USDOT and the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety, contains a sample company policy, a sample memo to employees on that policy, a sample company press release, and other materials.

In addition,the Better Business Bureau’s national website will feature videos from USDOT’s “Faces of Distracted Driving” video series.

The Better Business Bureau will also provide a link to www.distraction.gov, a resource on everything having to do with distracted driving.

Nearly 5,500 people in the U.S. were killed and almost half a million were injured in accidents related to distracted driving in 2009, according to the government. Eighteen percent of those fatal accidents involved the use of a cell phone.