WASHINGTON (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of tractor-trailer and bus drivers in the United States carry commercial driver’s licenses despite also qualifying for full federal disability payments, and some of those drivers have suffered seizures, heart attacks or unconscious spells, 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.”

Full Story Here:
Deadly Tolls: Sick truckers causing fatal wrecks

I am going to let you folks in on a little secret, there are drivers operating commercial vehicles out there, on the road, right now, that have NEVER had a drivers physical. Or maybe have had 1, many years ago, and kept a copy of it, and all they did was take their NEW physical form and fill it themselves along with the card that the driver must carry as proof of a current physical if stopped for a D.O.T. inspection.

All it takes is a bit of knowledge, that knowledge can be found on the REAL physical form, some bad handwriting, ALL doctors have bad handwriting, and then you turn it in to your dispatcher or safety person. That’s it, you’re certified as physically fit to drive a truck.

You see, very few companies actually check to see if the driver really went to a doctor, many drivers claim they went to their personal physician and paid for the exam themselves. The trucking companies don’t care. This practice saves them money and they have met their end of the FMCSA standards of having a current physical on file for that particular driver.

The FMCSA is a *toothless* tiger. They are nothing more than another government agency feeding at the trough and doing very little to actually make the highways of this nation safer.

Some truckers said the government should enforce existing rules, not make new ones.

You will never see any truer words printed anywhere. We have ALL the laws we need, just enforce the ones that are already there, good laws designed to protect the American public, in fact we probably need LESS laws, but we need rigid enforcement of the good ones.

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