By Doug Smith, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Lutzie 43 Foundation
Next time you’re stopped at a red light, look over at the vehicle beside you. Odds are pretty good the driver’s head is tilted down toward a phone. Maybe yours is too. Mine has been, more times than I’d like to admit.
That’s what gets me about distracted driving. Nobody needs to be convinced it’s dangerous. We know. We do it anyway, because it’s only a second, because the light’s red, because it might be work calling.
According to NHTSA, 3,208 people were killed in crashes involving distracted drivers in 2024, and another 315,167 were injured. The National Safety Council puts cellphone use behind about 1.6 million crashes a year. And those numbers are probably low, because distraction is hard to prove once a crash is over. A phone sitting in the cupholder doesn’t leave behind a blood alcohol reading.
At 55 miles per hour, a five-second look at a text covers the length of a football field. Think about that the next time it buzzes.
Why I Call These the Most Preventable Crashes
Most of what goes wrong on the road has some piece we can’t control. Weather. Somebody else’s bad decision. An intersection that was badly designed fifty years ago.
Distraction isn’t like that. It’s one person deciding, in about a second, that the phone matters more than the road right then. That’s hard to think about when you consider who ends up paying for that second. But it also means the fix is sitting in the driver’s seat. We don’t have to wait on a new law or a new interchange.
And hands-free doesn’t get anybody off the hook. The NSC found that 53% of drivers believe if a carmaker built the infotainment screen and hands-free calling into the dash, it must be safe. It isn’t. You can have both hands on the wheel and your eyes pointed straight ahead while your mind is on a conference call three states away.
What Companies Are Doing, and What They Can’t Reach
I spend a lot of my time with fleet-heavy companies (utilities, trucking, field services), and plenty of them take distraction seriously. They’ve got phone policies, telematics, in-cab cameras, apps that lock the phone when the truck is moving, annual training. If your company has those, good. Keep them AND enforce them.
But every one of those tools stops when the shift ends.
Your policy doesn’t ride home with your employee at the end of the shift or when they’re done for the day. It’s not in the minivan on Saturday morning. And it’s definitely not in the passenger seat when your employee’s sixteen-year-old pulls out of the driveway for the first time, after years of watching Mom or Dad check a phone at red lights – or while doing 70 up I-75.
For most of the people who work for you, most of their driving happens off the clock. So does a lot of the risk you’re carrying. The Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) released its 2026 cost-of-crashes report this summer, and it puts the direct cost of motor vehicle crashes to U.S. employers at $62 billion a year. A crash on the drive home still shows up in your health plan, your absentee numbers, and on your team.
Where Giving Comes In
I’ve been writing all year about how roadway safety falls between departments. Safety owns the fleet. HR owns benefits. Risk owns the claims. CSR owns the giving. Four possible owners usually means nobody really owns it.
Of those four, though, philanthropy and community impact is the only one that isn’t limited to work hours. A gift to a roadway safety organization can reach the high school your employees’ kids attend, the college campus down the road, and drivers your policy will never touch.
A lot of the people doing that work started because they lost someone. Jennifer Smith at StopDistractions.org. Pam O’Donnell and the Catch You Later Foundation. The MADD volunteers in your own community. Mike Lutzenkirchen and our team at the Lutzie 43 Foundation. Most of us run on small staffs and a lot of heart, and one committed corporate partner can change what an organization like ours is able to do in a year.
So, my ask this month is pretty simple. When your company’s year-end giving list comes together, put a roadway safety organization on it. I’d love for it to be us. But if it’s a group closer to home that’s doing good work, I’ll count that as a win too. I just want this cause on the list.
Philip, and 43 Key Seconds
Philip Lutzenkirchen wore 43 at Auburn University. Auburn fans remember his touchdown catch in the 2010 Iron Bowl. The people who knew him remember a whole lot more than that. He was 23 when he was killed in a crash in 2014. It wasn’t a phone that night. But his family has spent the years since saying the same thing to anyone who’ll listen: most of these crashes come down to choices, and choices can change.
That’s what the 43 Key Seconds safe driving initiative is built on. Before you put the vehicle in drive, take 43 seconds:
Clear Head. Clear Hands. Clear Eyes. Click It.
Two of those four are about distraction. Clear Hands means the phone is secured before the vehicle moves. Clear Eyes means your eyes stay on the road, not on a screen. It’s simple on purpose. A safety manager can teach it at a tailgate meeting, and a parent can teach it in the driveway.
Why I’m Talking About Year-End Giving in October
If you manage a giving budget, you already know the answer. By the time a request lands in late November, the money is usually spoken for, or the person who signs off is out until January. Year-end gifts tend to get decided in October.
From November 19 through December 31, the Lutzie 43 Foundation will run our 43 Day Year-End Campaign. Forty-three days, for Philip’s number. For years, that campaign has been carried by individuals: parents, students, Auburn fans, people who’ve heard Mike tell Philip’s story. That’s not changing.
What is new this year is that, for the first time, businesses, companies, and organizations can give as an organization, right alongside those individual donors. That could be a straight company gift. It could be matching what your employees give during those 43 days, or a friendly challenge between your locations or crews. It could be a year-end gift that kicks off bringing 43 Key Seconds to your own people in 2027. We’ll help you figure out what fits.
Let’s Talk Before November 19
If any of this hit home, here’s what I’d ask.
Take a few minutes at lutzie43.org/donate and see what we’re doing. Then, if your company might want to be part of 43 Days of Giving this year, email me at doug@lutzie43.org before November 19. I’d much rather start that conversation now, while there’s time to build something that means something to your team, than in a rush the week before Christmas.
And if you’re already thinking about something bigger than one campaign, our corporate partnership options are at lutzie43.org/corporate-partnership. Or just reply to this post. I read every one.
In the meantime, put the phone in the glovebox on the way home tonight.
Hopeful,
Doug
doug@lutzie43.org | www.lutzie43.org
Sources
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “Distracted Driving.” nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/distracted-driving (2024 data). Accessed October 2026.
National Safety Council. “Distracted Driving.” nsc.org/road/safety-topics/distracted-driving. Accessed October 2026.
Network of Employers for Traffic Safety. “Cost of Motor Vehicle Crashes to Employers—2026.” July 2026. trafficsafety.org.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Five seconds at 55 mph figure, distracted driving campaign materials.
This Article Is Part of a Continuing Series, “My Challenge to Corporate America.” Explore the Series:
- Part 1 – A Challenge to Corporate America: It’s Time to Make Roadway Safety Part of Your 2026 Philanthropic and Social Responsibility Plans
- Part 2 – The Real Cost of Employee Roadway Incidents: What Companies Don’t See
- Part 3 – Roadway Safety: The Overlooked Philanthropic Opportunity in Corporate America
- Part 4 – Driving Is the Most Dangerous Thing We All Do Daily, So Why Don’t Companies Address It?
- Part 5 – A Challenge to Corporate America – The Power of Early Adopters: How Leading Companies Shape a Safer Future
- Part 6 – A Challenge to Corporate America – What I Learned on the Road, and What the 100 Deadliest Days Demand of Us Right Now
- Part 7 – A Challenge to Corporate America – How Corporations Can Influence Safer Communities Where Employees Live, Work, and Play
- Part 8 – A Challenge to Corporate America – Integrating Roadway Safety into CSR and ESG: A Practical Guide for Companies
- Part 9 – A Challenge to Corporate America – Changing Driver Behavior: The Corporate Role in Reducing Daily Risks