Take Action on Distraction
Oct
24
Written by:
10/24/2011
Check out the quote in a safety publication from BRS’ own Terrie Norris.
http://www.ishn.com/Articles/Industry_News/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000001027352
April is now recognized as distracted driving awareness month, and there is a crackdown on enforcement in California.
Terrie provides a good message about the importance of putting an end to distracted driving. Equally as impressive is that even non-safety professional people like Oprah Winfrey are jumping on the band wagon and helping us out. Take a look at her campaign.
http://www.oprah.com/packages/no-phone-zone.html
A whole page is dedicated to people that have taken the “No Phone Zone” pledge. That’s pretty impressive.
You have probably seen information on the changeable message signs on the freeway lately indicating that a minimum fine is $159 for texting while driving. This was confusing to me at first since I thought the penalty for a first offense was supposed to be $20. I found documentation from the California distracted driving awareness campaign information and it indicates “The base fine for the FIRST offense is $20 and $50 for subsequent convictions. With penalty assessments, the total ticket cost can be more than triple the base fine amount – a minimum of $159 on a first offense and $279 on subsequent offenses.” I’m not sure about their math, but I am definitely pleased that there is now more of a penalty to make people think twice about the consequence.
The FAQs have some great resources for additional information and training employees about driver safety. One of the things I did not realize is that your hands have to be free (hands free – duh!). For example, you cannot use a speaker phone and hold it with one hand – not that I have ever done that! Well, come on, safety people are human too. I won’t be doing it any more. If you really want to make sure that employees or loved ones are not distracted, look at the new app that Sprint is introducing later this year. It prevents you from being able to answer the phone while the car is moving.
http://newsroom.sprint.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1835
You also might want to look at the Youtube video embedded in this blog. It is a fun, short video that can be used to drive the point home with employees. It also addresses distracted walking. I wonder when a law is going to come out to address that one?