Workers whose job puts them behind the wheel feel pressured to stay connected during the workday despite distracted driving raising the risk of an accident, according to data from several surveys released last week.

Experts weighing in say company culture needs to shift, despite the prevalence of distracted driving policies on paper.

“Sixty-eight percent (of companies) have policies. However, when we ask individuals, people who may work with these same companies, we find that only a quarter know there is a policy,” said Chris Hayes, Hartford, Connecticut-based assistant vice president risk control for workers compensation and transportation at Travelers Cos. Inc., which released its Travelers Risk Index on distracted driving on March 30.

That data, culled from two separate surveys of 1,000 individuals and 1,000 executives, suggests that work-related pressure might lead to distracted driving. Eighty-six percent of managers expect employees to respond to work-related communications at least sometimes while outside the office during work hours, and 33% expect employees to answer or participate in work calls while driving, the surveys found.

Mr. Hayes called the presence of distracted driving policies and the common practice of taking work calls while on the road a “disconnect” in workplace safety culture. It’s a “lack of safety culture, not policy,” he said.

Travelers found that supervisors’ and companywide expectations may contribute to the finding that 42% of respondents said they take work-related calls, texts or emails while driving. When asked why, 43% of those respondents stated that it might be a work-related emergency, 39% felt they always need to be available, and 19% said their boss would be upset if they didn’t answer.

A separate survey of 2,000 adults, also released March 30, by Selective Insurance Group Inc. and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, found that 39% of drivers have participated in a video call while driving for work — a finding that struck experts as especially shocking.

Mike Mazzarella, Branchville, New Jersey-based vice president, commercial lines, at Selective Insurance, said workforce culture is behind the issue.

Employers “have to create that culture that the road is the priority, not grabbing that call from even their boss, or feeling the need to participate in a meeting,” he said.

Jeremy Bethancourt, Phoenix-based safety consultant and co-founder of the advocacy organization Drive Smart Arizona, said companies run the risk of offering “lip service” on distracted driving instead of having an ironclad policy with enforcement. “Companies literally have to make the decision to do it,” he said. “They simply have to say, ‘We are going to have a policy and follow it, because we know that this is dangerous.’”

Cathy Chase, Washington-based president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said blaming employers skirts the issue that most Americans use devices while driving — whether for work or for personal reasons. She said employers, however, can lead the charge in changing the practice.

“No one should ever feel pressured to use a device behind the wheel,” she said. “The problem is pervasive nationwide both for personal and professional driving.”

Can hands-off devices help? No, contends Ryan Pietzsch, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania-based driver safety program technical consultant at the National Safety Council. “Really it’s inattentiveness. We labeled it distracted driving, but when we did the research what we are talking about is inattentive driving.”

“The act of driving takes a great deal of attention, no matter where we are,” Mr. Pietzsch said, adding that a person taking a call or message is not paying as much attention as needed to traffic conditions, other drivers, road hazards and signage.

“If we are inattentive to those inputs we are missing them; it’s information that we cannot act upon,” he said. “Whatever that next (work) task is, that may be taking their mind off the act of driving.”