Legal dangers of employee's text-and-drive habits.

Legal dangers of employee's text-and-drive habits.

Your employees should not use their cell phones when driving. Working in Freehold New Jersey, it amazes me the amount of times I see people driving with
company vans texting and driving. Despite the fact it has been all over the news that there have been a huge number of accidents caused by people texting or holding a cell phone while driving.

However, what is really alarming and is not discussed in the news is how this can expose your business and possibly the business owners to incredibly high liability. In addition, the law deems that a person is acting as an employee of a company even if they're using their own car if they are using it for company business. That can even include picking up lunch for all or some of the employees in the office. If the employee gets into a car accident while doing work for the company, the company can be held liable. That liability could be catastrophic to a company and its owners if the person driving causes a major car accident, causes a vehicular death, or hits a pedestrian while text or talking on their cell phone while working for a company and driving.

For this reason, I always recommend that a company ensure that employees are told, in writing, they cannot use their cell phones while operating automobiles. As a business owner, there are legal documents that can be created to help eliminate this tremendous liability risk for any business. Need help in addressing this problem with your company? Call us at 732-792-3397 or email us at david@weinsteinlawyer.com.