Our Changing Globe

Archive for the ‘legal’ Category

ALERT: FMCSA bans cell-phone use

fleetowner.com11/23/11

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration formally banned all hand-held cell phone use by commercial truck and bus drivers during the operation of their vehicles.

US DOT Bans Cell Phone Use By Truckers and Bus Drivers …

kansascity.injuryboard.com11/29/11

From the US Department of Transportation: U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced a final rule specifically prohibiting interstate truck and bus drivers from using handheld cell…

A comprehensive study, that was commissioned by the non-profit Governors Highway Safety Association, and funded by State Farm Insurance concluded that there is no conclusive evidence that hands-free cell phone use while driving is any less risky than hand-held cell phone use.

And it also suggests that there is no evidence that cell phone or texting bans have in any way, reduced crashes.

The findings come after nine states have imposed bans on hand-held cell phone use while driving, and thirty four states have imposed texting bans for drivers behind the wheel.

Despite the findings, The Governors Highway Safety Association does not recommend that restrictions on cell phone use or texting be lifted in any of the states where they presently exist.

But it does recommend that those forty one states which don’t ban talking on a cell phone hold off on enacting new legislation.

The study found, and suggests that:

Drivers are frequently distracted by any number of factors ranging from eating, to talking to texting, perhaps as much as 50% of the time they spend behind the wheel.

Drivers adapt by paying more attention to driving and and less to distractions, when the road risk level increases.

States should enforce existing distracted driving laws, but should consider that such enforcement takes away from other traffic enforcement efforts.

Two-thirds of all motorists reported using a cell phone while driving and about one-third of them routinely.

One-eighth of all drivers reported texting while driving, although observational studies during the daylight hours in 2009, suggested that only 1% of all drivers were observed to be texting.

In conclusion

The authors make a number of recommendations including;

Enacting a total ban of cell phone use for novice drivers.

A total ban on texting bans for all drivers.

Greater use of highway engineering solutions, such as rumble strips and automotive technological innovations which are said help reduce distracted driving accidents.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Breaks Silence in First Interview Since His …

The former chief of the IMF admitted to a "moral mistake," but denied any violent acts in his interview with France's TF1.

Publish Date: 09/18/2011 23:28

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dominique-strauss-kahn-gives-first-236848

Lawyer for Accuser Calls Strauss-Kahn's Interview a 'Publicity Stunt …

Kenneth Thompson, who represents the housekeeper who accused Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault, questioned why the appearance on French TV never covered what happened in the hotel room.

Publish Date: 09/19/2011 23:32

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/lawyer-for-accuser-calls-strauss-kahns-interview-a-publicity-stunt/

The story about Strauss-Kahn being arrested on charges that he sexually assaulted and attempted to rape a hotel housekeeper is interesting in more ways than one.

The legal side of the story was explained here:

A second reason is the effect that it’s having on French politics!

Stauss-Kahn was leading Sarkozy by several points in most opinion polls and may well have become the president of France next year!

Which is perhaps why he is said to have told the hotel maid several times:

"Do you know who I am?"

And a third reason that the story is compelling is that it’s brought to light the sexual predatory behavior that is or was apparently rampant at the IMF.

The I.M.F., was created in 1945, and presently has 2,400 employees who evaluate the economic health of nations from a pair of huge Washington buildings, and on regular trips abroad, and it might best be described as an international island ruled by alpha male economists, in the midst of the American capital.

When nations borrow money from the fund, they typically must agree to adopt economic reforms, and employees are sent to watch their progress.

The days are long, and its employees are regularly pressed together for weeks on end during overseas “missions”, which creates a climate in which romances often flourish, and lines are often crossed.

Some women are even said to avoid wearing skirts for fear of attracting unwanted attention, whilst others trade whispered gossip or facts about overly forward bosses.

A somewhat shocking 2008 internal review found few restraints on the conduct of senior managers, and concluded that “the absence of public ethics scandals seems to be more a consequence of luck than good planning and action”.

But with Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s arrest earlier this week and his indictment on Thursday on charges that he tried to rape a New York hotel housekeeper, a new spotlight has been cast on the culture of the institution, and questions have been revived about a 2008 episode in which the I.M.F. decided that Mr. Strauss-Kahn had not broken any rules in sleeping with a female employee.

And until earlier this month the I.M.F.’s own rules contained an unusual provision that some experts and former officials say had encouraged managers to pursue the women who work for them: “Intimate personal relationships between supervisors and subordinates do not, in themselves, constitute harassment”.

The new relationship policy is a response to the 2008 case in which a Hungarian economist, Piroska M. Nagy, had a relationship with Mr. Strauss-Kahn.

An independent investigation found that Mr. Strauss-Kahn had not abused his power, and although he apologized publicly, many women at the I.M.F. were dismayed by the outcome.

Ms. Nagy described herself in a letter to investigators as “damned if I did and damned if I didn’t”.

And another event which will draw even more attention to the fund is the revelation of an affair involving a potential successor to Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who resigned as managing director on Wednesday.

Kemal Dervis of Turkey had a liaison while working at the World Bank years ago with a woman who now works at the I.M.F., according to a person with direct knowledge of the relationship.

Interviews and documents paint a picture of the fund as an institution whose sexual norms and customs are markedly different from those of Washington, leaving its female employees vulnerable to harassment, because the laws of the United States do not apply inside its walls.

“Culturally, there are a lot of people thrown together”, said Susan Schadler, who spent 32 years at the fund, rising to deputy director of the European department before leaving in 2007. “There’s a lot of scope for misunderstanding, and for misreading signals. I think that’s a particular vulnerability for the fund”.

“What are we supposed to make of this when we go into Strauss-Kahn’s office?”, Ms. Schadler said, recounting conversations with former colleagues, “Do we sit there and think, ‘He’s sizing me up as a potential sexual object?’, There’s this implicit culture that this wasn’t really seen as something that the fund is going to worry about”, she said, “and I think that’s what bothered women”.

And Carmen M. Reinhart, who’s a prominent female economist who served as the I.M.F.’s deputy director for research from 2001 to 2003 said, “It’s sort of like the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, and the rules are more like guidelines, that set the stage, I think, for more risk-taking”.

In 2007, officials at the fund declined to investigate a complaint by an administrative assistant who had slept with her supervisor, and who charged that he had given her poor performance reviews to pressure her to continue the relationship.

Officials told the woman that the supervisor planned to retire soon, and therefore there was no point in investigating the charges, according to findings by the I.M.F.’s internal court.

The official, who is not named in the records, told investigators that he also had a sexual relationship with a second employee, and that he did not believe he had acted improperly.

In another case, a young woman who has since left the I.M.F. said that in 2009, a senior manager in her department started sending her increasingly explicit e-mails seeking a relationship, and added that although she complained to her boss, he took no action.

“They said they took it seriously, but two minutes later they were turning around and acting like everything was O. K. to the person who had done it to me. He wasn’t punished. Not at all”, said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she still works in the international development community.

Virginia R. Canter, who joined the I.M.F. last year with responsibility for investigating harassment claims, said the institution recently took a series of strong steps to protect employees, and added that a new code of conduct adopted on May 6 specifies that, “intimate relationships with subordinates, are likely to result in conflicts of interest, and must be disclosed to the proper authorities”.

“It’s recognizing that sometimes relationships grow in the workplace”, Ms. Canter said, “,but it doesn’t mean we’re not sensitive to this issue and we will investigate if there is evidence to suggest harassment”.

She also said that the fund would never again brush aside an employee complaint like the one from the assistant who was sleeping with her boss.

“Absolutely that wouldn’t have happened today”, she said, “We would investigate the matter”.