The U.S. Department of Transportation and Better Business Bureau announced a collaboration to educate consumers and businesses about the dangers of distracted driving. DOT and BBB are calling on businesses across the country to adopt distracted driving policies as part of their employee culture to help 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,” says U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “We know that educating people about the risk of distracted driving works, and we are pleased to be working with BBB to raise awareness and help businesses and consumers fight this problem.”
BBB’s national Website will feature a link to a free toolkit that provides employers with suggested distracted driving policies. The kit, created by DOT and the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety, contains materials such as a sample company policy, a sample memo to employees on that policy and a sample company press release.
In addition, BBB’s national Website will feature videos from DOT’s “Faces of Distracted Driving” video series of heartbreaking stories from family members who have lost loved ones due to distracted driving accidents. BBB also will provide a link to www.distraction.gov, a resource on distracted driving.
“BBB is very pleased to help the USDOT spread the word about the dangers of distracted driving,” says Stephen A. Cox, president and chief executive officer of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. “Raising awareness about the dangers of multitasking while driving is vital. We are pleased to help promote this good work of the USDOT.”
Nearly 5,500 people in the United States were killed and almost half a million were injured in accidents related to distracted driving in 2009. Eighteen percent of those fatal accidents involved the use of a cell phone.
