Safety experts have urged drivers to remove one commonly worn item before getting in their car to drive home after a long day at work. The daily commute is a common aspect of many people’s days and while most car journeys are completed without an issue, in some unlucky and unfortunate situations, accidents can happen.
Lanyards pose injury risk in collisions
According to Adam Bennett, workplace security expert at Digital ID, there’s a workplace accessory that should always be removed to reduce risk of some types of injuries should you get into an accident. The item in question is the humble lanyard. Typically worn on a strap which goes around your neck, lanyards are used to display identifying information, security access cards, keys and more across a wide range of businesses.
Bennett says they shouldn’t be worn while driving. He explained: “While any delay on the way home from work is less than ideal, in this instance, taking a few seconds to remove your lanyard before you start driving could actually help you avoid serious injury.”
Airbags can drive lanyards into the body
The expert continued: “Police have reported in the past that minor road traffic collisions where people should have left relatively unscathed have been worsened by passengers wearing lanyards in the vehicle. Issues such as collapsed lungs or perforated bowels have been caused as a result of an airbag driving a lanyard and items attached like keys into the body of a passenger during a collision. And injuries like these can often leave people hospitalised for a couple of weeks.”
There’s another safety element Bennett encourages businesses to consider - that of workplace security and avoiding fraud. He said: “From a business security perspective, it’s even more important that you remove your lanyard immediately after leaving the building. Cloned identification is one of the easiest ways for a bad-faith actor to gain access to your workplace, and wearing your lanyard around your workplace provides more opportunities for someone to do this.”
Workers share security concerns
Bennett added: “It’s best practice to get into a habit of removing your ID as soon as you leave your building to avoid posing a security risk for your workplace, and a health risk for yourself on the commute home.”
Many workers have long discussed the benefits and safety aspects of not wearing their lanyards outside of their place of work, whether they travel to and from their jobs in their car or via public transport. In one post shared on Reddit, one person simply asked: “Why do people wear their work lanyards on their work commute?”
Many responses shared how their employers “actually told them not to wear their lanyards”, especially on public transport. Reasons ranged from security concerns, while some companies had a negative public reputation and staff may have been “targeted” by those who “actively hated them” and may opt to “attack” staff simply “for being employees”.
