Tis the season!

As they say, tis’ the season to be jolly… just not TOO much.   Recently there have been a number of “incidents” related to employees driving and as someone who has spent a lot of time advocating the need for comprehensive driver safety training programs and policies, it is a little disheartening to read about these incidents.   Real lives, real companies and real trouble.

For example:

There is the gentlemen in Pennsylvania who’s primary job was to take photos a crash sites for PENN DOT, he drove to the scene of a fatal accident… drunk.   You would think someone who had photographed accidents and understood the dangers involved with driving, would not in the course of his job as an employee driving, drive to the scene of a fatal accident, drunk.  http://www.centredaily.com/2010/12/08/2387402/police-penndot-worker-drove-drunk.html

Another, employee, who was a civilian employee of the police department, working on the Maryland Safe Streets Project, was convicted of his 2nd DUI in less than four months.   The employee still has his job?   http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20101206/NEWS01/101206027/CRIME-City-employee-charged-with-second-DUI

And last not least, there’s the elementary school bus driver, who was caught, not once, not twice, but three times on camera, texting while she was driving the school bus!!! With kids on the bus!   Oh .. and in her particular state, texting while driving is against the law and has been since 2009.  http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=151433&catid=57

All of these incidents involved poor decisions made by individuals who are employees who in some capacity had to drive for their employers.   The question is, if someone had been hurt, would the employer have been responsible?   There are certain legal theories which would say yes… so if the employer had a comprehensive driver safety program or at least was offering an online driver safety program like the one offered by my company, DefensiveDriving.com, they would have at least had the comfort of knowing they had formally educated these employees not to engage in this behavior.

So remember, this the season, please be safe!