Unfit big-rig drivers on road, probe finds

Scripps Howard

Investigations by E.W. Scripps television stations have found that tens of thousands of big-rig operators remain on the road, despite medical conditions that should disqualify them.

But it will be nearly three years before federal and state safety officials — pulling over buses and trucks for roadside inspections — can quickly verify that operators are medically fit to drive.

And even when a national database of medical certificates is up and running in 2012, police and regulators may not be sure that a legitimate medical examination has been done or that drivers have told examiners the truth about their medical history.

Scripps reporters earlier this month found several instances where medically unfit drivers had caused fatal crashes. The driver in one fatal Ohio crash had 27 different prescription drugs in his cab, although none were detected in his blood. His medical certificate had expired just a week earlier.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in 2007 that truck drivers’ heart attacks or other physical impairments were responsible for some 4,000 serious truck crashes from April 2001 through December 2003, while an additional 5,000 were caused by drivers falling asleep. Researchers estimate that more than 28 percent of all truckers suffer from sleep apnea to some degree.

“Are there people out there who should not be on the road? Absolutely, we see them all the time,” said Dr. Richard O’Desky, an Akron occupational-medicine specialist who is one of the nation’s leading experts on trucker health and safety. He says among the most common conditions are heart disease, serious neurological problems and sleep disorders that make nodding off behind the wheel near-certain.

Federal investigators last year reported that more than 560,000 operators holding current commercial driver’s licenses were also receiving full medical-disability payments from the government.

And last summer, congressional investigators reported that one out of three medical certificates examined at roadside stops could not be verified — either the doctors who signed the certificates could not be found or they denied ever conducting an exam claimed by a driver.