Million Dollar Call

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com

MININEAPOLIS - There's so much you can do with a cell phone these days. Besides talking and texting, you can surf the net, take pictures and make movies. One man did something with a phone that ended up costing a company a million dollars.

Becoming a Marine had been one of the hardest things Mike Wills ever did, until now. He has been suffering from excruciating headaches and has been losing the ability to remember the simplest things.

He was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, which is a constant reminder of the blow he took to the head when a driver on a cell phone crashed into him.

Wills had been on his way to work one morning on Highway 61 near Wabasha, Minnesota. Suddenly, a bread truck pulled out right in front of him. Wills desperately tried to stop, but the laws of physics were against him. He was wearing a seat belt and his car's airbag went off, yet that didn't protect him from getting hammered in the head by the rearview mirror.

The driver of the bread truck admitted to the Minnesota State Patrol that he'd been talking on his cell phone when he failed to yield the right of way. He was given a ticket and pled guilty.

It's been nearly three years now since the accident and Wills doesn't know if his memory will ever come back. He must write important things down or he forgets them.

Truck driver, Benjamin Sullivan of Rochester, declined to be interviewed by the FOX 9 investigators. But in a lawsuit deposition earlier this year, he did answer questions from Wills' attorney, Harry Sieben.

Sullivan acknowledged no one from his company had ever told him not to use his phone when driving. Sieben says he was surprised by Sullivan's answers.

"What I was thinking is that people should say, 'I'm sorry I did it, I shouldn't be on the cell phone. It did distract me from driving and I'm not going to do it anymore,'" said Sieben

Sullivan's employer, Pan-o-Gold Baking Company also declined to be interviewed by the FOX 9 investigators.

Driver distraction is now a leading factor in Minnesota car crashes. The Minnesota Safety Council estimates that at least 70 people die every year and another 350 are injured due to distraction. Using a cell phone is one of the worst. An insurance industry study found drivers are four times more likely to get into an accident when they're on the phone.

In Minnesota, it's against the law to text and drive but it's not illegal to talk on a cell phone. But some organizations are now imposing their own internal bans.

Metro Transit, for example, requires bus and train operators to have their phones turned off, stowed off their person and out of sight while behind the wheel. Failure to do so carries a stiff penalty. A second violation will get you fired.

"We've had 20 violations since the policy took place where people had the suspension," said Julie Johnson of Metro Transit.

Wills can't get in a car anymore without thinking something bad is going to happen. He thinks all drivers should be banned from using phones although he doubts lawmakers are willing to go that far.

Perhaps his lawsuit will get people to rethink their habits. His case against Sullivan and Pan-o-Gold Baking recently went to trial. The jury awarded him $1 million.

A number of Minnesota businesses are adopting policies to address this problem.

Best Buy, Xcel Energy, Boise Cascade have implemented distracted driving polices that limit or ban the use of cell phones by employees when they're on the job.