House committee reviews policies on trucker health

Sep 14, 2008

Members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure met July 24 to hear testimony on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's efforts to ensure commercial motor vehicle drivers are medically fit to operate commercial vehicles.

A report (.pdf file) released in July by the Government Accountability Office examined the certification process for drivers with serious medical conditions, such as epilepsy, heart attacks or unconscious spells. Investigators found about 563,000 individuals who held commercial driver's licenses were determined by the federal government to be eligible for full disability benefits. This represents more than 4 percent of CDL holders analyzed using data from the Department of Transportation, as well as medical disability data from the Social Security Administration, the Office of Personnel Management and the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Labor.

Investigators acknowledged that not all serious medical conditions interfere with the safe operation of a commercial vehicle, but warned some serious medical conditions can and should disqualify drivers from being medically certified according to DOT regulations. The committee's staff advised FMCSA to:

• Complete rulemaking linking medical certification to the commercial licensing process
• Develop a standard medical certificate template and distinct design
• Expedite rulemaking to establish a national registry of certified medical examiners
• Create a central repository for medical examiners to report examination results

Committee members acknowledged FMCSA has made several efforts to improve medical oversight of CDL holders, including establishing a Medical Review Board in 2005 to oversee medical advice and make recommendations on medical standards and guidelines for physical qualifications of CMV drivers, examiner education and medical research. However, they said efforts to establish a medical examiner registry are going slowly and several other recommendations remain outstanding.

During the hearing, attendees discussed progress on eight outstanding recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board in 2001 in response to a motorcoach crash that killed 22 people in Louisiana in 1999.

Mitchell A. Garber, medical officer for NTSB, told the committee that the driver lost consciousness while driving on an interstate highway and crashed into an embankment. The driver later was found to have had multiple known serious medical conditions, including end-stage kidney failure and congestive heart failure, Garber said.

Rose A. McMurray, FMCSA assistant administrator and chief safety officer, insisted her agency has made significant progress on a number of initiatives and is exploring new ones.