b'Your safety program should prohibit any activity for any individual driving a vehicleshould prohibit any activity for any individual drivingDont forget, if your employee is driving a company a vehicle (whether personal or company) duringvehicle and is in an accident while lighting a cigarette, business hours or from conducting business for yourplacing a telephone call, etc. your company will be company whenever they are driving any vehicle.joined as a party defendant to any lawsuit that might Activities we have identified as having the potentialarise from the accident. While you might be able to to distract drivers from the business of driving are:get your company dismissed from a suit arising out of eating, drinking, reading, smoking, dialing a telephonean accident caused by the negligence of an employee call, answering an incoming telephone call and ofwhile lighting a cigarette, you would most likely not course, exchanging emails or texts. You may askget out of a similar suit caused by your employee while yourself how much time it takes to place a telephonethey were conducting any form of company business call. Time yourself to see how long it takes for youwhich distracted them from driving. So, as those who to punch a seven digit telephone number into yourparticipated in the safety recognition program know, smart phone. I have tried it and I have found that theyour distracted driving program should prohibit any fastest I can unlock my phone, get into the phone App,form of distracted driving including those activities call up the keypad and punch in a seven digit numbernoted above. This needs to be an absolute prohibition. is nine seconds. If I were doing that in a vehicleIn fact, if you find it essentialfor your employees traveling 70 miles an hour on interstate my eyes wouldto be able to place or receive telephone calls while be away from the road in front of me for 927 feet,driving, you should permit such activity only if they again, more than the length of three football fields.have a voice activated blue tooth set up that permits How long would your eyes be off the road if you werethem to place or receive phone calls without ever eating a hamburger and dripped mustard or ketchuptaking their eyes off the road. As many employers are on your pants and moved to wipe them clean? Howalso finding out, however, even talking on the phone long would your eyes be off the road if you fumbledin a blue tooth manner, takes a percentage of the to find your pack of cigarettes, got a cigarette out ofdrivers attention from what they are doing as they are the pack, found your lighter and lit the cigarette? Theconcentrating on the telephone call.point here is that any of these activities take yourFinally, I would like to take a few lines to discuss eyes off the road for a significant period of time; timedistracted working. I think we all are aware of the enough for your vehicle to travel a great distance.hazards that exist on any roofing project whether it www.mrca.orgMidwest Roofer 33'