At KCI Technologies, a large engineering firm in Hunt Valley, employees know one of the rules is not to talk on a cell phone while driving a company vehicle. Not even if it's the boss calling. Pull over at a safe place and take the call.
The 1,100-employee company is one of an apparently small number of businesses outside the core transportation industries that have adopted stringent employee codes requiring safe driving practices while using company vehicles - a practice that a new safety advocacy group is calling upon other Maryland employers to adopt.
The Maryland Highway Safety Foundation said it hopes to recruit 100 businesses with a cumulative 100,000 employees to adopt policies covering such matters as cell phone use, texting while behind the wheel, driving while intoxicated and other traffic offenses. Foundation co-chairman David Nevins announced the effort at a morning meeting that drew some of the state's top political leaders, including Gov. Martin O'Malley, House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger.
After the meeting, O'Malley said his administration would become one of the employers to adopt such rules for users of state-owned vehicles. "Stay tuned. It's in the offing," he said.
The governor did not give details but indicated that the policy would at a minimum ban texting while driving a state-owned vehicle - a practice he called as dangerous as driving while intoxicated. O'Malley said he believes he has the power to adopt such a code for state workers by executive order.
Neither cell phone use nor texting while driving is explicitly banned under Maryland law, even though either could possibly be covered under the state's negligent driving statute. The General Assembly has so far resisted passing legislation addressing cell phones or texting except in the case of novice drivers.
The foundation, organized this year by Maryland business leaders, is urging employers to adopt such bans on their own - with the hope that behaviors learned on the job will carry over to drivers' personal lives. Foundation officials announced the challenge as the foundation made its Annapolis debut on a podium around which were scattered 615 pairs of shoes - representing the number of people killed on Maryland roads last year.
According to founder Fred Mirmiran, president of Sparks-based Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson, the group's goal is to cut the state's highway death toll in half within five years.
