We all know that texting while driving i
s against the law, but there are many other situations where texting is hazardous. I have seen many funny videos where people fall into fountains or walk into walls while texting, did these people get injured?
Did you know that small companies risk losing work from certain clients from having too many WCB claims? Just one incident may be enough for your clients to say that your company has a history of not keeping workers safe. Large clients like to use calculations including TRF (Total Recordable Frequency) and companies with less than 100 employees have a greater TRF impact with only 1 recordable incident. As such, companies must prevent as many incidents as possible.
Over the years we have assisted our clients to determine how they should classify the incidents they have had. The root cause for quite a few of these incidents is being distracted while texting.
- Times when texting is absolutely dangerous:
- While driving or operating equipment.
- While working around roads or where equipment (forklift, heavy equipment, etc.) are working.
- While walking. This is even more serious when the terrain is uneven or stairs are present. (this has caused more than one worker to miss a few days of work from falling down stairs while texting).
Aside from the safety issues associated with texting while working, keep in mind that while you are texting you are not doing your job. If your job does involve texting ensure that you are in a safe place before you shut out the world and concentrate on ensuring auto-correct doesn’t say crazy things on your behalf.
According to a recent U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission report, more than 1,500 pedestrians were treated in emergency rooms in 2011 after being injured while using a portable electronic device like a cellphone compared to 559 in 2004.