Seeking to minimize dangerous driving, some firms ban employees from talking on a wireless handset.
Wireless cell phone usage policies are increasingly being put in place, not only to reduce possible employee cell phone abuse but also to reduce corporate liability in the event the worst-case scenario happens.
On March 8, 2000, 15-year-old Naeun Yoon was walking along a highway in Northern Virginia when she was struck and killed by a car driven by Jane Wagner, an attorney at high-tech law firm Cooley Godward. Wagner was on her cell phone with a client at the time.
Wagner, who says she thought she hit a deer, turned herself in when she saw the news the next morning and realized what she did. She lost her license to practice law, served a one-year jail term in a work-release program and declared personal bankruptcy soon after her conviction.
In addition to suing Wagner, Yoon’s family sued Cooley Godward in a civil case, claiming the firm encouraged its employees to work long hours and didn’t promote safe use of cell phones within its organization.
In 2004, the law firm settled with the Yoon family. The company’s insurance policy paid about $92,500 to the family, and the firm settled for an undisclosed amount. The family also was awarded another $2 million from Wagner.
This is clearly a tragic case – with the Yoon family suffering the biggest loss of all – but there are measures employers can take to reduce the chance that such accidents will happen again. Although lawyers agree that wireless policies restricting employees’ cell phone usage when operating a motor vehicle may not eliminate a company’s liability, they could at least eliminate an accusation of negligence.
Corporate culpability
“Anyone talking on a cell phone [while driving] is liable for damages in any accident,” says Edward Poll, a longtime attorney who now runs LawBiz, a management consulting firm for law firms.
Today, New Jersey, New York and the District of Columbia have laws on the books that mandate drivers to use a hands-free headset when using their cell phone while behind the wheel. Several other states have similar laws that only cover certain cities and towns (see graphic, below).
“An employer with 10 to 1,000 employees with company-issued phones is responsible if one of those employees carelessly uses their phone while driving and causes an accident,” Poll says. Instituting corporate-wide wireless use policies helps show that the company cares about safety, but he points out that companies must enforce their policies.
Admittedly, this is a challenge. One auto parts manufacturer that asked not to be identified has a corporate-wide wireless use policy that restricts cell phone use while driving. Although employees are required to pull over to the side of the road to conduct business on their wireless phones, a spokesman says the policy is difficult to enforce.
However, Imagistics International, a document imaging company in Trumbull, Conn., actively follows up on its policy that prohibits employees from using company-issued cell phones while driving. About 1,000 Imagistics service and dispatch employees use company-issued Treo 600 phones from Sprint .
The policy includes language that clarifies acceptable personal use, and also says that users are not allowed to operate their motor vehicle while talking on their cell phones, hands-free headset or not. Each employee must sign the document.
“We call it making sure our employees are safely using their phones. Users must pull off to the side of the road to use their phone,” says John Chillock, vice president of customer service operations. “We do not want our employees to hurt anyone or themselves.”
Imagistics has a standard practice within its organization to do ride-alongs with its service employees for coaching and to see how they operate. “It’s a chance to give employees positive feedback and the only way to make any policy work,” Chillock says.
While Chillock says Imagistics trusts its employees, it’s important to see that they aren’t taking that occasional call while between stops. He also points out that setting an example at higher levels is important. That is, if your company’s executives follow the policy, other employees are more likely to follow suit.
While the auto parts manufacturer and Imagistics didn’t specifically say they were worried about being sued in case of an accident caused by an employee on his cell phone, clearly it’s something both firms want to avoid.
Hawaii Home Loans in Honolulu is a cutting-edge company that exclusively uses wireless phones throughout its organization. But so far, the mortgage company only verbally recommends usage policies, says Leonard Loventhal, a senior vice president at the company.
“Every quarter at the company’s sales meetings, I tell employees to not only keep courteous wireless cell phone usage at top of mind but also to be highly safe and use an ear piece while driving,” Loventhal says.
It looks like the state of Hawaii will make it easier for Hawaii Home Loans to enforce its verbal policy: The state legislature is close to passing a law that will require motorists to use hands-free headsets while driving. “That will take care of the issue for us,” he says.
The auto parts manufacturer, Imagistics and Hawaii Home Loans are in various stages of developing and instituting wireless use policies, but most companies don’t even have policies. It’s something that any company that issues phones to employees should have not only to try to reduce corporate liability in case of an accident but also to prevent it from ever happening.
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