Medically Unfit Truck Drivers
There are hundreds of thousands of drivers in the United States who carry commercial driver's licenses and use them frequently.
Of the people who have commercial licenses, many who drive tractor-trailers and busses qualify for full federal disability payments while driving.
According to a recent safety study of the United States obtained by the Associated Press, many of the drivers have suffered seizures, heart attacks, or unconscious spells.
Trucks pose a significant threat to drivers even when their drivers are healthy.
These problems and threats persist despite years of government warnings and hundreds of deaths and injuries due to commercial truck and bus drivers.
Many of these accidents have been blamed on drivers who have blacked out, collapsed, or suffered major health emergencies behind the wheel of a vehicle that can weight more than 40 tons.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the agency in the United States responsible for tracking and cracking down on unfit truckers, has acknowledged that it hasn't completed a single of the eight recommendations that United States safety regulators have proposed.
These proposals date back to 2001.
One of the proposals creates minimum standards for officials who determine whether truckers are medically fit to drive.
A second recommendation prevents truckers from "doctor shopping.
" Doctor shopping occurs when a physician who might overlook a risky health condition is purposely sought out by a driver who knows he or she has something that makes it risky to drive.
Doctors who are medically unfit to drive pose a major public safety threat.
Gerald Donaldson, senior research director at the Washington-based Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, acknowledges that the problem hasn't been corrected.
The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety are a group that includes consumer, health, and safety groups, and insurance companies as members.
According to a review of the United States trucking industry, truckers violating federal medical rules have been stopped in every state.
The study included an analysis of 7.
3 million commercial truck driver violations compiled by the Transportation Department in 2006.
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas were the states that had drivers sanctioned most frequently for violating medical rules.
These infractions included failing to carry a valid medical certificate.
These 12 states were responsible for half of all of the violations in the United States.
For more information on the trucking industry and truck accidents, please visit http://www.
truckaccident-lawyers.
com.
Of the people who have commercial licenses, many who drive tractor-trailers and busses qualify for full federal disability payments while driving.
According to a recent safety study of the United States obtained by the Associated Press, many of the drivers have suffered seizures, heart attacks, or unconscious spells.
Trucks pose a significant threat to drivers even when their drivers are healthy.
These problems and threats persist despite years of government warnings and hundreds of deaths and injuries due to commercial truck and bus drivers.
Many of these accidents have been blamed on drivers who have blacked out, collapsed, or suffered major health emergencies behind the wheel of a vehicle that can weight more than 40 tons.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the agency in the United States responsible for tracking and cracking down on unfit truckers, has acknowledged that it hasn't completed a single of the eight recommendations that United States safety regulators have proposed.
These proposals date back to 2001.
One of the proposals creates minimum standards for officials who determine whether truckers are medically fit to drive.
A second recommendation prevents truckers from "doctor shopping.
" Doctor shopping occurs when a physician who might overlook a risky health condition is purposely sought out by a driver who knows he or she has something that makes it risky to drive.
Doctors who are medically unfit to drive pose a major public safety threat.
Gerald Donaldson, senior research director at the Washington-based Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, acknowledges that the problem hasn't been corrected.
The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety are a group that includes consumer, health, and safety groups, and insurance companies as members.
According to a review of the United States trucking industry, truckers violating federal medical rules have been stopped in every state.
The study included an analysis of 7.
3 million commercial truck driver violations compiled by the Transportation Department in 2006.
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas were the states that had drivers sanctioned most frequently for violating medical rules.
These infractions included failing to carry a valid medical certificate.
These 12 states were responsible for half of all of the violations in the United States.
For more information on the trucking industry and truck accidents, please visit http://www.
truckaccident-lawyers.
com.
Source...