Medically Unfit Drivers – Part III

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Posted on 7th August 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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This week we have discussed the flaws that can be found within the CDL licensing system. The primary focus of this series of blogs has been how some individuals who are clearly not qualified to operate a commercial vehicle and who the government found to be fully disabled, are receiving CDL licensing.

The FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration),which works closely with the DOT, has five main requirements that determines whether an individual is eligible for a CDL license.
The rules are: (1) the driver needs to be at least 21 years old (2) the driver needs to able to read and speak English (3) the driver needs to have a valid commercial motor vehicle operator’s license (4) the driver needed to have completed the driver’s road test and (5) the driver must be physically qualified to drive which needs to be verified by receiving a medical certificate from a medical examiner claiming the driver is physical qualified to drive. See http://semi-accident.com for more information on the FMCSA regulations.

The GAO’s research found that there were many individuals who were driving without a medical certificate, the fifth requirement. Therefore, bureaucratic snafus have resulted in drivers having CDLs without meeting these clear cut requirements. As with the heparin debacle, http://heparin-law.com, it is clear that the U.S. government needs to make technological advancements so that they can assure these straightforward requirements are met before issuing or renewing commercial driver licenses.

The NTSB (The National Transportation Safety Board), which investigates transportation accidents, suggested additional requirements for CDL drivers. In 2006, 12% of commercial accidents were caused by the drivers having a heart attack, fatigue or another physical impairment. The NTSB agency concluded that by adding these eight requirements for a CDL, many more accidents could be prevented.

The NTSB’s Eight Suggestions are:

  • 1. Doctors performing medical examinations for drivers are qualified to do so and are educated about occupational issues for drivers. In other words, it is essential that these examiners know what type of abilities (as opposed to disabilities) a driver must have. For example: ability to stay focused for up to 11 hours at a time, in high stress traffic situations.
  • 2. Every prior application by an individual for medical certification is recorded and reviewed. That the applications and medical certifications, that were received over the previous years for a CDL license, are recorded and reviewed to further evaluate the licensing process.
  • 3. Medical certification regulations are updated periodically to permit trained examiners to clearly determine whether drivers with common medical conditions should be issued a medical certificate. The recommendations call for giving medical examiners the regulations with respect to the abilities needed for commercial driving periodically so they’re certain what conditions disqualify an individual from obtaining a CDL license. For more information view: http://subtlebraininjury.blogspot.com/2008/07/gao-medically-unfit-truckers-part-ii.html
  • 4. Individuals performing examinations have specific guidance and a readily identifiable source of information for questions on such examinations.
  • 5. To structure the review process by the DOT, to prevent, or identify and correct, the inappropriate issuance of medical certification.
  • 6. Provide mechanisms for enforcement authorities to identify invalid medical certification during safety inspections and routine stops.
  • 7. Provide enforcement authorities with the power to prevent an uncertified driver from driving until an appropriate medical examination takes place.
  • 8. Create mechanisms for reporting medical conditions to the medical certification and reviewing authority and to make sure that individuals, health care providers, and employers are aware of these mechanisms.

If the DOT adopts these eight recommendations from the NTSB, this could help eliminate accidents involving CDL license drivers who are not fit to drive.

GAO — Medically Unfit Truckers Part II

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Posted on 30th July 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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As we have been discussing on this blog for the last few days, the U.S. House of Representatives, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, held hearings on July 24 on medically unfit truckers. Click here for the hearing information. In this blog, we will discuss some examples of commercial drivers with medical conditions and why these are dangerous.

The GAO found numerous CDL drivers with serious medical conditions. One was a bus driver from Florida that continued to have a CDL and was being hired as a substitute bus driver. This man receives disability benefits for breathing problems that require him to use three daily inhalers and that he claims he, “occasionally blacks outs and forgets things.” This man should not be driving because he could have a breathing problem while on the road and black out. Further, this guy does not have a medical certificate which is required by the DOT to continue to have an active CDL.

Another case was a truck driver from Florida that receives a disability for multiple sclerosis who hauls circus equipment to different shows. Not only does this driver not have the required medical certificate, his medical condition causes fatigue and this can be very dangerous with a driver that travels all over the U.S. The driver could fall asleep and cause a major accident. Without a medical certificate it is impossible to know if the driver has any other conditions that would make him a very dangerous CDL driver to put on the road.

Another disturbing account was a truck driver in Maryland who receives a disability for being 100 percent deaf received a CDL license. The medical examiner claimed that this was an error. This obviously very dangerous for obvious reasons.

Many disabilities can affect an individual’s ability to be a commercial driver. While as advocates for the injured we would have to agree with the DOT that not all disabilities make someone exempt from receiving a CDL license, there are several disabilities, like fatigue, complete deafness and breathing problems that raise serious doubt on whether an individual is fit to have a CDL.

Fatigue is a perfect example. The bulk of trucker related regulations, focus on preventing fatigue. See http://semi-accident.com/fatigue.html To enforce those regulations while allowing someone who has abnormal fatigue to get a CDL, is incongruous. Would not a simple cross referencing of Federal Government data bases eliminate this problem? While Social Security does allow for certain trial returns to work, clearly those returns (if they involve a CDL) should be monitored with the same degree of zeal that the Social Security Administration too often uses to deny deserving people’s benefits.

Each year 5,300 people die and 126,000 people are injured in accidents involving commercial drivers and twelve percent of these accidents are caused by a CDL driver having fatigue, heart attack or a physical impairment. It is important for the DOT to take CDL licensing seriously and consider more thorough evaluations.

In our next blog, we examine the specific requirements to receive a CDL and the NTSB’s recommendations.

GAO Report Criticizes Oversight of Medically Unfit Truckers

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Posted on 29th July 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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As discussed in our previous blog, the U.S. House of Representatives, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, held hearings on July 24 on medically unfit truckers. Click here for the hearing information. Included in the hearing documentation was a GAO (Government Accountability Office) report on this issue. That report discussed in length such concerns. Our next several blogs will detail the findings of that report, GAO Report to Congressional Requesters: Commercial Drivers Certification Process for Drivers with Serious Medical Conditions.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08826.pdf

GAO did this study for the Department of Transportation (DOT) to assess how many drivers with a CDL ( Commercial Drivers License) who are medically unfit, are still driving with a CDL. Since those with CDLs are licensed to drive large vehicles, including semi tractor-trailers, it is important to know that the DOT is doing everything possible to insure that CDL drivers are not putting other vehicles in danger because of their serious medical conditions. For this reason, the DOT has specific medical rules for individuals who are obtaining a CDL license or who hope to maintain their license.

The GAO analysis found some disturbing information about the medical conditions of thousands of drivers who have a CDL. Working with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Labor (VA), Social Security Administration (SSA) and Office of Personnel Management, the GAO found that approximately half a million individuals who have a CDL were eligible for full disability benefits. Allowing these individuals who have been deemed unable to work, to drive a commercial sized vehicle, could be risky and dangerous.

In theory, qualifying for a full disability should involve an objective determination that an individual is unfit to work and even more so, drive a commercial vehicle. The government sends experts to look at a claimant’s medical files, hospital documents, may require a special evaluation and analyzes past relevant job history. When the government confirms that an individual is fully disabled, this should mean that an individual would be a poor candidate to engage in the activities of a commercial driver.

This government website lists many of the conditions that determine whether you are disabled and the basic guidelines that determine your ability.
http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10053.html

While as brain injury advocates, we are always striving to rehabilitate our clients, such rehabilitation cannot involve vocations that put both the disabled person and the general public at risk. Our next blog will provide examples from the GAO report of those using a CDL license, despite seriously disabling conditions.

Regulators scolded on medically unfit truckers

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Posted on 25th July 2008 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 07/24/2008 07:45 PM

By JOAN LOWY
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) _ House lawmakers scolded federal regulators Thursday for failing to implement recommendations made in 2001 that were designed to keep medically unfit commercial truck and bus drivers off the nation’s highways.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn., told Rose McMurray, the chief safety officer for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, that deaths and injuries caused by medically unfit drivers are “on your conscience” because the agency has taken so long to act.

“I think if your agency had a safety mission and a safety mind-set it wouldn’t have taken you eight years,” Oberstar told McMurray at a hearing, demanding that she “carry back to your agency” his message to “get people moving.”

He said the agency’s efforts to fulfill the eight recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board “have been begrudging and painstakingly slow. … The progress has been just about negligible.”

McMurray said the agency has proposed one rule and is close to proposing another to address two of the recommendations — to merge the licensing and medical certification of commercial drivers, and to create a national registry of examiners approved to issue medical certificates — and has made progress on two other recommendations. However, she said it will be about three years before progress is evident on the remaining four recommendations.

“We have to make sure we do this right and we have to ensure there are not unintended consequences,” McMurray said.

The NTSB made the recommendations in response to a 1999 motorcoach accident in New Orleans that killed 22, and put them on the agency’s “most wanted” list in 2003.

In the New Orleans motorcoach accident, the NTSB said the bus driver, Frank Bedell, 46, suffered life-threatening kidney and heart conditions but held a valid license and medical certificate. A passenger recounted seeing the driver slumped in his seat moments before the crash.

Tractor-trailer and bus drivers have suffered seizures, heart attacks or unconscious spells while behind the wheel. Such illnesses have been a critical factor in thousands of serious truck accidents.

The NTSB recommended that examiners who certify drivers as medically fit be qualified and know what to look for, and that a system be set up to track medical certificate applications and prevent drivers from doctor shopping.

A study by the House committee found that it’s so easy to fabricate the medical certificates required to operate commercial trucks and buses that there’s almost no incentive for drivers to obtain a legitimate document.

There are so few controls over how drivers obtain medical certificates that it’s “relatively easy for a motivated commercial driver to circumvent the physical examination requirement,” the study found. Nor is there any database or central repository which would allow state inspectors to verify the legitimacy of a medical certificate.

“Because so few attempts are made to authenticate a certificate, there is little risk that a driver will be caught if he or she forges or adulterates a certificate,” the study said.

The study was based on a sample of 614 medical certificates obtained from truck drivers at roadside inspections in California, Illinois and Ohio. The committee’s staff attempted to contact the examiners named on the medical certificates but could only verify 407 as valid.

One Ohio doctor contacted by the committee said forgery of medical certificates is so commonplace “no one gets alarmed by it anymore.”

Hundreds of thousands of drivers carry commercial licenses even though they also qualify for full federal disability payments, according to a U.S. safety study disclosed by The Associated Press earlier this week.

The Government Accountability Office said in the study that 563,000 commercial drivers were determined by the Veterans Affairs Department, Labor Department or Social Security Administration to also be eligible for full disability benefits over health issues. It said disability doesn’t necessarily mean a driver is unfit to operate a commercial vehicle, but its investigators found alarming examples that raised doubts about the safety of the nation’s highways.

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On the Net:

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee: http://transportation.house.gov/
http://semi-accident.net

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.