Are Semi Truck Drivers Medically Fit to Drive Safely?
Following up on a recent post about the increased danger of serious injury accidents caused by semi truck drivers who are not physically qualified to operate an 80,000 pound tractor trailer, I saw this article on the Jacksonville, Florida Channel 4 website. The article suggests that the federal regulation that requires semi truck drivers to be medically cleared by a licensed medical professional before driving a semi truck is basically meaningless as semi truck drivers are able to use forged medical certificates or have their medical evaluations with doctors whom they know will qualify them regardless of their medical condition. This quote from the article is quite telling: "One Ohio doctor contacted by the [Transportation] Committee said forgery of medical certificates is so commonplace, 'no one gets alarmed by it anymore.'"
As discussed in the recent post, the federal regulations are supposed to require every semi truck driver who drivers interstate to get evaluated by a licensed medical professional before driving to ensure semi truck drivers are medically able to safely drive and to prevent injury and fatal accidents caused by medically unfit drivers. Certain medical conditions, such as epilepsy and insulin dependant diabetes, automatically disqualify a person from driving a semi truck under the regulations. However, if no one is enforcing these regulations, drivers who are more prone to seizures, heart attacks, dizziness, blackouts and other unsafe conditions are free to drive semi trucks on the roads with no recourse.
