A new United States safety study has found that tractor-trailer truck drivers and bus drivers carry commercial licenses despite major health problems, which could have led to many fatal commercial truck accidents on highways. The study also found that hundreds of thousands of licensed drivers also qualify for full federal disability payments.

Despite years of hundreds of tractor-trailer truck accident deaths blamed on drivers who blacked out, collapsed or suffered significant health problems while driving, highway travelers are threatened by vehicles that can weigh at least 40 tons.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the US agency responsible for monitoring unfit truck drivers, admits it hasn’t completed any recommendations that safety regulators have proposed since 2001. One recommendation would help officials determine whether truck drivers are medically safe to drive, while another would prevent truck drivers from going to numerous doctors to find one who may overlook a health condition.

In 2006, there were 7.3 million commercial truck driver violations, with the following 12 states accounting for half of all medical violations:

• Texas,
• Maryland,
• Georgia,
• Florida,
• Indiana,
• Pennsylvania,
• Illinois,
• Michigan,
• Alabama,
• New Jersey,
• Minnesota, and
• Ohio.

The Transportation Department reported 5,300 deaths resulting from commercial truck accidents in 2006, with an additional 126,000 injuries. One federal safety study found that one of the leading causes of serious tractor-trailer truck accidents was drivers who fell asleep, who suffered heart attacks or seizures, or who were physically impaired.

One such truck accident involved a 61-year-old truck driver who smashed his truck into traffic in Missouri in June 2006, killing four women. The man’s employer agreed to pay $18 million to settle a commercial truck accident lawsuit, and the driver was later acquitted on four counts of second-degree involuntary manslaughter after lawyers argued the accident may be attributed to a diabetic episode.

Another tractor-trailer truck accident occurred in April 2002 in Tennessee, when a driver of a 15-passenger day-care bus crashed into a bridge, killing four children and the 27-year-old driver. A Safety Board said the man fell asleep frequently and likely had an undiagnosed sleep disorder.

A Congressional committee will conduct oversight hearings on July 24, 2008, in attempts to pass legislation allowing for a clearinghouse for drug test results and allowing for investigations of unfit truck drivers.

Source: Hope Yen and Frank Bass, “Deadly tolls: sick truckers causing fatal wrecks,” Yahoo News, July 21, 2008.