PORTLAND, Ore. - A representative from the National Transportation Safety Board told NASDPTS members that the failure to develop a policy prohibiting employees from using cell phones while driving on company business could be costly in more ways than one.

A bevy of studies and surveys over the last two years have indicated the potential bodily harm that phone conversations, verbal or text, by drivers can cause. Dwight Foster, NTSB's deputy director of the Office of Highway Safety, said on Sunday that school districts and any business should constantly be re-evaluating safety policies and especially after any crash or on-the-job accident, whether that be caused by driver fatigue or, especially, cell phone usage.

"You can't solve the distracted driver problem completely," he warned. "But if you don't have [a cell phone ban] as a policy in your business, you face really big liability."

He advocated doing something different as a result of any incident but not trying to accomplish change in one fell swoop. Instead, he recommended taking incremental steps to build safety into the company culture. In other words, he told the NASDPTS gathering to foster evolution of policies and procedures. He quoted Albert Einstein: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."