Georgia Truck Accident Attorney BlogPublished on:
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Articles Posted in Truck driver safety
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Trucking safety issues addressed by FMCSA director
As a trucking accident trial attorney based in Atlanta, Georgia, I try to keep up with trucking safety issues at the national level. The latest development was a statement last week by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration director Ann Ferro at a U.S. Senate subcommittee. Some of the high points include:
Core priorities of FMCSA are to:
1. Raise the safety bar to enter the industry;
2. Require operators to maintain high safety standards to remain 3. Remove high-risk operators from our roads and highways.
CSA 2010 is to be implemented by end of 2010.
This Comprehensive Safety Analysis program is intended to measure seven key behaviors that are linked to trucking crash risk:
1.Unsafe Driving 2. Fatigued Driving 3. Driver Fitness which includes licensing and medical compliance standards 4. Crash History 5. Vehicle Maintenance 6. Improper Loading and Cargo 7. Controlled Substances – Drugs and Alcohol
New Entrant Safety Assurance Program focuses on 16 safety regulations for which a violation by a new entrant carrier would result in an automatic failure of the safety audit. Any new entrant that fails the safety audit must submit a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) in order to continue to operate in interstate commerce. FMCSA also closely monitors the new entrant during the initial 18-month period of operation and, if certain violations are discovered during a roadside inspection, the new entrant will be subject to an expedited action to correct the identified safety deficiencies.
National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners rules later this year will establish minimum training and testing requirements for all healthcare professionals that issue medical certificates for interstate truck and bus drivers. (I’ve seen drivers who were cleared to return to service in a 10 minute checkup by a chiropractor after open heart surgery.)
Hours of Service. FMCSA is taking another look at the controversial hours of service rule.
Electronic On-Board Recorders will be required of an additional 5,700 motor carriers as a remedial measure. (The days of “comic book” driver logs may be numbered, but making the EOBR systems tamper-proof will be the next challenge.)
Distracted Driving. FMCSA has banned text messaging by drivers while operating a commercial motor vehicle. (It’s a step in the right direction.)
Drug & Alcohol Database. FMCSA is working on a database to keep up with drivers who fail drug and alcohol tests.
There’s more. I commend the entire statement to the interested reader.
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Witnessed fiery truck crash in New Mexico
As a trucking accident trial attorney in Atlanta, Georgia, I often litigate about trucking accidents. As a seminar speakers, I often talk about them at continuing legal education seminars around the country. On this blog, I frequently write about them.
But last Sunday, I saw one.
While helping my son move his car and his stuff home from California, I was taking a turn driving east of Albuquerque when we saw a column of black smoke just ahead. As traffic ground to a halt, we saw that about 200 yards ahead on the westbound lanes of I-40, one tractor trailer had rear-ended another, and was beginning to burn.
Another bystander said that her husband had broken out a window in the cab of the striking vehicle and pulled the unconscious driver out before his rig burst into flames.
As traffic was blocked in both directions, my son and I waited over an hour, watching as the truck was engulfed in flames and a huge column of black smoke rose into the clear New Mexico sky.
Numerous emergency vehicles responded. Eventually a helicopter landed in our eastbound lanes and evacuated the truck driver.
While we waited, I talked with the drivers of trucks stopped behind us. A bulk freight tanker filled with plastic pellets was stopped behind me at an angle blocking both lanes. One of the other truckers thanked him for blocking both lanes that way, so that others would not get closer to the fire before stopping. He responded that he had no choice. Due in part to handling characteristics with that load, he had a hard time stopping without hitting us, and wound up at an angle across both lanes.
The truck drivers waiting on the road talked some about the new CSA 2010 (Comprehensive Safety Analysis) program coming online soon at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. A seasoned truck driver (about my age) was concerned that anyone who has been driving over the road for 30 years, with the diet and exercise difficulties that go with that, is bound to have medical conditions that require medication that would be reported under the new system.
They also talked a little about how they manage rest, diet and exercise. Or don’t manage it, as the case may be. One mentioned the near monopoly in the truck stop business, and the lack of healthy food or exercise facilities at truck stops. If the giant players in the truck stop industry would put in healthy food and fitness facilities, it would help a lot in improving truck driver health and public safety.
Eventually the helicopter took off and we were able to drive away. As we passed the burned out tractor trailer, it was difficult to recognize the completely incinerated tractor. Traffic was backed up for many miles on the westbound lanes of I-40 and probably was not cleared for quite a while longer.
No, I don’t know the causes of the crash — fatigue, distraction, speed, following too closely, or even sudden stopping in the middle of an open interstate through the desert.
Fortunately, it was another tractor trailer that was hit. While the trailer of the lead vehicle was destroyed, there was no direct impact to the cab. If a small vehicle had been hit in that manner, and then involved in the truck fire, it is unlikely any occupants would have survived.
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Justice for truck drivers who refuse to violate the law
The STAA (Surface Transportation Assistance Act), which also covers truck driver whistleblower cases, gives truck drivers a right to refuse to drive a commercial vehicle when it would violate the law to do so.
Examples include driver fatigue or illness, unwillingness to participate in an illegal activity, or a reasonable belief that a vehicle is unsafe because of worn tires, missing headlights, or low air pressure in brake system. STAA is supposed to protect drivers by preventing firing or other retaliatory action from truck companies. However, without effective legal representation those rights can be meaningless.
I don’t handle STAA claims. I could probably fill up my caseload with them, based on the number of calls I get from truck drivers whose employers insist that they run illegally, but there aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything.
If you are a truck driver whose employer gives you a choice between running illegal or losing your job, you might contact Truckers Justice Center , 900 West 128th Street, Suite 104, Burnsville, MN 55337, Telephone 952.224.9166, Fax 678.791.1728.
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Another family killed when rear-ended by a tractor trailer
No matter how often it happens, the useless tragedy is never less shocking.
Several years ago, something similar happened to a family in our neighborhood in Sandy Springs. The parents survived but their lovely teenage daughter, who had been a friend of my daughter since kindergarten, was killed instantly when a tractor trailer ran right over them as they slowed for congested traffic on I-20 in Alabama. After seeing so many incidents of this sort, I automatically hit the hazard flasher button whenever traffic slows ahead of me on the expressway.
The predawn hours are an all too common time for this sort of crash. Driver fatigue and efforts to keep driving despite sleepiness are often a factor.
Investigation of such incidents should include tracking down and examining all driver logs, trip receipts, Prepass records, weigh station records, bills of lading, etc., etc., to determine whether there were violations of hours of service rules in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. It should also include investigation of the driver’s medical history, including any disqualifying medical conditions and use of prescription or non-prescription medications that may affect alertness.
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Obesity and sleep apnea a double threat for trucking safety
Obesity is a big risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea, which is a huge risk for drowsy drivers causing crashes.
And long days of sedentary, solitary work, legally driving up to 11 hours in a 14 hour work day, with no easy access to either healthy food or a place to safely exercise, promotes obesity.
It is no wonder then that long haul truck drivers often suffer from both obesity and obstructive sleep apnea.
MSNBC reported this week that a Harvard sleep scientist, Dr. Stefanos N. Kales, has published an article in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, calling for mandatory sleep apnea screening of commercial truck drivers.
“Screenings of truck drivers will be ineffective unless they are federally mandated or required by employers,” said Kales, whose study included more than 450 commercial drivers working for more than 50 firms.
Sleep apnea is a disorder that causes a person’s airways to collapse during sleep, cutting off breathing dozens – or even hundreds – of times a night. Because sufferers wake over and over, they’re never fully rested and their bodies are chronically deprived of oxygen. That can cause health problems ranging from heart disease to diabetes and symptoms that include daytime sleepiness and a tendency to nod off during normal activities.
“It can be a microsleep for few seconds,” said Kales. “That can be enough to throw a truck off the road.” The results can be devastating.
According to Kales, up to 20 percent of truck crashes are caused by drivers who fall asleep, and up to 28 percent of commercial drivers have sleep apnea. That works out to as many as 3.9 million of the roughly 14 million commercial drivers. The 28 percent rate among truckers compares poorly with about 4 percent of men aged 30 to 60 in the general population.
“A driver is impaired by fatigue long before he falls asleep,” said Jeff Burns, a lawyer representing the Truck Safety Coalition, a safety advocacy group.
Trucking industry groups routinely reject concerns about obesity and sleep apnea.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Medical Review Board has recommended mandatory sleep apnea screening for commercial truck drivers, but the FMCSA does not appear to have the issue on its agenda for action in the near future.
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“Safety culture” is important for prevention of catastrophic truck crashes
Not surprisingly, the “safety culture” of a trucking company is a huge factor in determining whether its drivers are involved in catastrophic truck crashes.
The Transportation Research Board published a couple of years ago “The Role of Safety Culture in Preventing Commercial Motor Vehicle Crashes.”
Some key points from that study are:
• Culture and safety have a clear connection.
• Safety culture is best defined and indexed by an organization’s norms, attitudes, values, and beliefs regarding safety.
• Effective top to bottom safety communication and interactions enhance safety culture.
• Terms such as “accident” and “mishap” are often replaced with the terms “crash,” “wreck,”
and other more appropriate, straightforward terms in many safe cultures.
• In many instances, organizations, organizational subgroups, and professions may each have identifiable safety culture.
• Recognition and certain rewards systems for safe behavior are an effective component of safety culture.
• Driver experience enhances a safety culture, especially if that experience is with one carrier.
Driver retention problems, however, have the potential for degrading a safety culture.
• Many levels of communicating safety culture are necessary in “remote workforce” industries such as truck and bus operations.
• Policies, procedures, employee safety responsibilities, and safety messages must be clear and simple.
Hiring practices, safety training and education, company orientation, and safety management are all key components of a safety culture.
• Measuring safety performance of drivers and the organization as a whole are key components of a safety culture.
Actions that companies may take to improve their safety culture include the following:
• Develop or redevelop internal definitions of culture and safety.
• Conduct “Swiss cheese” analyses, to determine what omissions in the management system contributed to accidents.
• Identify and dispel myths, such as the tendency to always blame weather or outside factors.
• Conduct institutional safety knowledge development.
• Define or redefine employee safety roles from top to bottom • Assess the effectiveness of safety communication and reengineer systems of safety communication.
• Create or enhance a system of safety record data collection and analysis.
• Develop or redevelop motivational tools, such as tying driver compensation and advancement to safety.
• Improve driver retention.
It’s a long report. I commend it to any truckers and safety managers who are interested in improving safety.
And I will certainly refer to it in “looking under the hood” of the management system of companies whose trucks crash into my clients, causing serious injury or death.
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Sleep apnea in truck drivers linked to obesity
Truck driver fatigue is one of the most obvious causes of truck crashes. Obstructive sleep apnea is among the most common contributing factors. Obesity is a big risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea.
Now there is another study reconfirming the obvious: that obesity-driven testing strategies identify commercial truck drivers with a high likelihood of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and that mandating obstructive sleep apnea screenings could reduce the risk of truck crashes.
The study by Cambridge Health Alliance published in the March 2009 edition of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine concludes that:
– Truck drivers with sleep apnea have up to a 7-fold increased risk of being involved in a motor vehicle crash.
– Drivers with sleep apnea frequently minimize or underreport symptoms such as snoring and daytime sleepiness.
– A majority of truck drivers did not follow through on physician recommendations for sleep studies and sleep apnea treatment.
– It is possible that many of the 14 million truck drivers on American road have undiagnosed or untreated sleep apnea.
– “It is very likely that most of the drivers who did not comply with sleep studies or sleep apnea treatment sought medical certification from examiners who do not screen for sleep apnea and are driving with untreated or inadequately treated sleep apnea.”
– The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is currently deliberating recommendations to require sleep apnea screening for all obese drivers based on body mass index or “BMI.”
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What medical conditions disqualify a commercial truck driver?
NOTE TO TRUCK DRIVERS:
Our law practice focuses on representation of people who are seriously injured, and families of those killed, in crashes with large commercial vehicles. While those are often truck drivers, we do not handle truckers’ employment law matters. For legal advice on issues with your employer, see Truckers Justice Center.
Trucking companies are required to obtain a medical examination by licensed medical examiner of each truck driver. Here are the physical conditions that disqualify a truck driver from obtaining a CDL (commercial drivers license) and operating a commercial motor vehicle.
1. Loss of use of extremity. Loss of use of a foot, leg or arm, subject to a Skill Performance Evaluation of ability to safety control and operate a commercial motor vehicle even with a prosthetic limb.
2. Diabetes. Medical history of clinical diagnosis of diabetes currently requiring insulin. Diabetics whose condition is controlled with oral medication and diet may qualify.
3. Cardiovascular. Current clinical diagnosis of myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, coronary insufficiency, thrombosis, or any other cardiovascular disease of a variety known to be accompanied by syncope, dyspnea, collapse, or congestive cardiac failure. Coronary artery bypasses are not disqualifying, but implanted pacemakers are disqualifying.
4. Respiratory. Established medical history or clinical diagnosis of a respiratory dysfunction likely to interfere with the ability to control and drive a commercial motor vehicle safely. Examples of disqualifying respiratory conditions are emphysema, chronic asthma, carcinoma, tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis and sleep apnea.
5. Hyptertension. Any detection of hypertension requires frequent rechecks. A blood pressure of 180 (systolic) and 110 (diastolic) or higher is considered Stage 3, at high risk for an acute event such as a stroke. The driver with Stage 3 hypertension may not be qualified, even temporarily, until reduced to equal to or less than 140/90 and treatment is well tolerated, and thereafter rechecked every six months.
6. Other physical limitations. Clinical diagnosis of rheumatic, arthritic, orthopedic or vascular disease which interferes with ability to control and operate a motor vehicle. This would include, for example, known to have acute episodes of transient muscle weakness, poor muscular coordination (ataxia), abnormal sensations (paresthesia), decreased muscle tone (hypotonia), visual disturbances and pain which may be suddenly incapacitating. Medical examiners must evaluate the severity and the likelihood of impairment affecting safe operation.
7. Epilepsy. Established medical history or clinical diagnosis of epilepsy or other condition known to cause loss of consciousness. Single episodes of non-epileptic seizure or loss of consciousness are evaluated regarding likelihood of recurrence, with a six month waiting period highly recommended. Drivers with a history of epilepsy/seizures off antiseizure medication and seizure-free for 10 years may be qualified to operate a CMV in interstate commerce. Interstate drivers with a history of a single unprovoked seizure may be qualified to drive a CMV in interstate commerce if seizure-free and off antiseizure medication for a 5-year period or more.
8. Psychiatric. Mental, nervous or functional disease or psychiatric disorder. This is often a subjective evaluation and easily overlooked by medical examiners.
9. Vision. Must have corrected vision of at least 20/40 in both eyes. One who is blind in one eye cannot qualify. My wife, who is functionally blind in one eye, would not qualify.
10. Hearing. Must be able to perceives a forced whispered voice in the better ear at not less than five feet with or without the use of a hearing aid. If tested by use of an audiometric device, must have an average hearing loss in the better ear greater than 40 decibels at 500 Hz, 1,000 Hz and 2,000 Hz with or without a hearing aid. I wonder whether my daughter, who is deaf but has an Auditory Brainstem Implant that enables her to hear environmental sounds and understand some speech would qualify.
11. Uses a Schedule I drug or other narcotic, with a narrow exception for prescribed medications.
12. Current diagnosis of alcoholism.
While the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has taken steps to tighten up on medical examinations and certifications, there is still likely to be a problem with drivers avoiding going to doctors and avoid reporting dangerous symptoms to medical examiners. I have taken depositions of truckers who fell asleep while driving, looked like medical textbook illustrations of likely candidates for obstructive sleep apnea, and who had great knowledge of sleep apnea, but who denied ever having consulted a physician regarding any sleep related ailment.
There is also a problem with drivers who do get treatment for their disqualifying conditions but neither comply with their doctors directions nor reported their conditions. In one case, I took the deposition of a truck driver’s personal physician who testified that the driver had confirmed obstructive pulmonary obstructive disorder (COPD), required use of an oxyen tank 24/7, and was unfit to operate a large truck. However, the trucker had never told the medical examiner or his employer of this condition.
The next step in reforming the medical qualification process may be to adjust the incentives. Right now the incentive for truck drivers to to avoid seeking treatment for problems that could be disqualifying, and to conceal insofar as possible any medical problems they may have. How can the rules be modified to to encourage drivers who have problems to seek the medical care they need?
And how can truck stop chains be encouraged to provide better access to healthy food and exercise facilities in order to help truck drivers maintain healthier lifestyles?
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Medical certification rules for interstate truck drivers tightening
The health of truck drivers operating 80,000 pound vehicles on the highways for long hours is a matter of great concern for safety of both the truckers and others on the road. The lifestyle of long-haul truckers is hardly conducive to maintaining good habits of diet and exercise. Obesity, sleep apnea, and related ailments are too common, and ultimately affect safety.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has taken two new steps toward improving the supervision of medical certifications of drivers.
First, effective 1/30/09, regulations require states to maintain records linking medical certifications, medical examiner certifications, and CDL (commercial drivers license) records. A copy of these documents must be maintained in the motor carrier’s driver qualification file. There will be a three-year phase-in of the new rule until 1/30/12.
Second, the FMCSA has published for comment a proposed rule to establish a national registry of medical examiners, who would be required to complete training about truck driver physical qualification regulations. Only those doctors who complete and maintain their certifications would be allowed to certify the fitness of truck drivers.
These are steps in the right direction. Now I would like to see truck stop chains do their part by installing exercise facilities and offering healthier food options.
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