Medically Unfit Truckers a "Major Public Health Concern"
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On July 24, 2008, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a long-awaited report detailing how approximately 563,000 commercial drivers had serious, disabling medical conditions.
The 563,000 professional drivers include mostly interstate semi-truck drivers and commercial bus drivers from around the United States, including Wisconsin. The study matched the identities from Commercial Drivers Licenses (CDL) to the lists of disabled individuals from the following:
- Social Security Administration
- Office of Personnel Management
- Department of Veteran Affairs
- Department of Labor
After matching the identities of the professional drivers with the disability rolls, the GAO then chose 12 states to analyze more closely. Wisconsin was one of those 12 states. The results of the more detailed analysis surprised many.
Perhaps the most startling fact obtained from the deeper analysis was that the majority of CDL’s were issued to drivers AFTER they had been declared fully disabled due to medical conditions by the federal government. Further analysis showed that over 1,000 of the drivers in the 12 states had medical conditions which included: vision problems, hearing problems and seizure disorders. Obvious disabilities that could cause significant limitations while driving.
The report confirms what we attorneys that routinely take on interstate trucking and bus companies have long known, that this has been and continues to be a serious problem. For years, we have been dealing with truck and bus drivers that “doctor shop” until they can find a physician willing to certify them as medically fit to drive. We regularly see semi-truck drivers causing serious accidents when they shouldn't even be on the road.
Each year, 5,000 people are killed and over 100,000 are injured as a result of crashes involving semi-trucks and buses througout the United States.
Just keep in mind, that just because a CDL truck driver has been or is considered disabled, does not mean that the disablity keeps that person from safely driving a truck. My boyfriend has a knee replacement and a 20yr old hip replacement that we are trying to keep from having to replace right now as the next one will be his last due to his age. He has a disablity placard so as to reduce the stress on his hip from having to walk sometimes blocks just to go use a restroom or eat a meal. It does not affect how he drives and he drives a standard. He has in the past been disabled due to that hip injury, but understand that sometimes people do get better. Stats can be used to mislead....Angel
Thanks Angel and I'm sorry to hear about your boyfriend's hip and knee. You are correct that many of the disabled drivers may not have medical conditions that impair their ability to drive. However, the study showed that over 1,000 of the drivers in the 12 states had medical conditions which included: vision problems, hearing problems and seizure disorders. It is hard to imagine these types of medical disabilities not impairing one's ability to safely operate a large truck. This concerns me.
Agreed. And I am aware of the "doctor shopping", and that sort of practice needs to stop, but we may be better served by providing some kind of alternate vocational training for medically unfit drivers. I am a driver, but I also have alternate methods for making a living, many of these drivers are pushed into "doctor shopping" purely for monetary reasons and lack of training in another vocation that would be able to support them and their family. There will always be the ones we can't help or are to stubborn to try ande change, but if we increase the education in alternate vocations if a disablity sidelines a driver, we may have fewer occurences of skirting the system.
Tell me if I am wrong, but the basis for this story is to round up clients to represent if they have been injured by a medically unfit driver. Is that correct? If I am incorrect, then I am sorry, I gather that if I am correct, then this arena is probably not interested in ideas on how to prevent it from happening. But I did want to include a suggestion on one of the fundamental reasons for skirting the system. We are an industry that is more tightly regulated than the medical field! They don't happen to notice it when you kill them one at a time due to a tired or medically unfit practioner, but when you kill them by the car or bus loads, people pay attention. I am trying to put this into perspective. It happens all the time in the medical profession, but you don't see a nurse or doctor being required to have a job performance physical every two years even though maybe they should. Nor do does the law require the nurses or doctors to keep a log on how much they sleep, off-time, and such. If they did, the public would be appalled!
This does not excuse the trucking industry, but I would like for you to keep it in perspective. A doctor can leave the floor/ER and still continue to practice medicine in some manner, but truck drivers don't have that option and they are the least likely to be able to afford the new vocational training. So we may need to educate them better on the alternative ways of making a living as you can't drive a truck your entire life as eventually age or disability always catches up with you.
I certainly agree with alternative vocational training for medical unfit truck drivers. The only way we differ on this issue is that I would like to have the authorities make that choice for them. That being said, any system would have to provide options that will allow disabled truckers to make a living in a different field.
With regard to the purpose of this blog, I am a personal injury lawyer. I represent individuals that have been injured by the negligence of individuals or companies. I decided to devote the majority of my practice to representing individuals that have been injured in trucking accidents for two main reasons:
1. My father is a retired truck driver and I have grown up around large trucks and always took an interest in them.
2. I feel there is a need. Every year over 5,000 people are killed and over 100,000 people are injured in semi-truck accidents. These statistics have remained relatively steady for the past 10 years. Eventually, large verdicts will force the worst trucking companies out of business, and in turn, the trucking industry as well as America’s roads, will be much more safe.
I am extremely interested in prevention, however, your complaint that the trucking industry is over-regulated falls on deaf ears. There is a legitimate reason for the regulations. Trucks can be 80 ton killing machines in the hands of medically unfit drivers. While I agree that the medical profession needs to be better regulated, the answer is not to scale back regulations on the trucking industry (I’m not sure that is truly what you were suggesting, and if not, I apologize). I would support “hours of service” regulations the medical profession that are similar in nature to those for the trucking industry.
The bottom line is that truck drivers and trucking companies need an incentive to keep drivers off the road if they have disabilities that have any negative effect on their ability to safely operate their trucks. A comprehensive alternative vocational training program could be enacted as a proactive incentive-laden program for drivers as well as companies. Unfortunately, there is no disabled trucker lobby, which in today’s world is usually necessary to get anything done.
I think we both agree on several issues, definitely medically qualified personnel need to be the ones that determine their fitness as well as the HOS. I just wanted to put the idea out there, there are reasons for the doctor shopping. Thank you for your support of those injured or killed whether by a truck or a car driver. I do understand that there needs to be a heavy enforcement of the "outlaw" companies and I wholeheartedly support you.
I will suggest to OOIDA and WIT that maybe we need to put out a feeler into a different direction for life after trucking, whether forced or by choice. Thank you so much for this discourse. I just wanted to let you know that there is a reason for it and if we can begin to talk about prevention we can actively begin to fight it from another front. Have a great New Year!!