Sick truck drivers causing fatal accidents

WASHINGTON — Tractor-trailer and bus drivers in the United States have suffered seizures, heart attacks or unconscious spells behind the wheel that led to deadly crashes on highways.

Hundreds of thousands of drivers carry commercial licenses, even though they also qualify for full federal disability payments, according to a new U.S. safety study obtained by The Associated Press.

The problems threatening highway travelers persist, despite years of government warnings and hundreds of deaths and injuries blamed on commercial truck and bus drivers who blacked out, collapsed or suffered major health problems behind the wheels of vehicles that can weigh 40 tons or more.

The U.S. agency responsible for cracking down on unfit truckers, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, acknowledges it hasn't completed any of eight recommendations that U.S. safety regulators have proposed since 2001. One would set minimum standards for officials who determine whether truckers are medically safe to drive.

Another would prevent truckers from "doctor shopping" to find a physician who might overlook a risky health condition. It's unclear whether any of the eight recommendations will be done before President Bush leaves office.

"We have a major public safety problem, and we haven't corrected it," said Gerald Donaldson, senior research director at the Washington-based Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, whose members include consumer, health and safety groups and insurance companies. "You have an agency that is favorably disposed to maintaining the integrity of the industry's economic situation."

Truckers violating federal medical rules have been caught in every state, according to a review by the AP of 7.3 million commercial driver violations compiled by the Transportation Department in 2006, the latest data available.

In Utah, the number of accidents involving professional drivers experiencing medical emergencies has not been calculated by the state's Department of Public Safety. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration did not return a phone call from the Deseret News seeking local data.

But there are professional drivers on Utah roadways who have been prohibited by the federal government from driving between states because of medical conditions, according to the state Department of Public Safety. The drivers get permission to drive within state lines from the department's CDL Medical Waiver program, said Debbie Darger, the program's manager.