Unsafe Truck Drivers: A continued roadside hazard
braininjury:
Unsafe truck drivers and the vehicle crashes they cause are a continued source of traumatic brain injuries.
A 30-page General Accounting Office study, released by the Associated Press today in advance of a governmental hearing on truckers and unsafe tractor trailer operations scheduled for later this week found that 563,000 commercial drivers were determined by the Veterans Affairs Department, Labor Department or Social Security Administration to also be eligible for full disability benefits over health issues. In many of these cases, the drivers were found to have vision, hearing or seizures disorders which would prohibit them from operating big rigs or other commercial trucks.
According to AP: 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.
Amazingly, 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.
According to information supplied by the The Transportation Department over 126,000 individuals were received serious injuries in the last year studied as a result of crashes with trucks or buses and an additional 5,300 people died in crashes involving large commercial trucks or buses in 2006.
In hearings to be conduced on Thursday by the The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the committee must demand that immediate steps…