Eye on Trucking: Is it time to rethink rules for getting medical certificate?

We all know that as we age, our doctor suggests we undergo more frequent preventive testing, such as for prostate cancer for men, breast cancer for women and heart disease for both men and women, to name a few.

By LYNDON FINNEY
The Trucker Staff

8/11/2009

Jerry Breeden, our staff writer who covers accidents and in whose long and illustrious career has reported on more wrecks, shootings and robberies that he’d like to remember, filed a follow-up story for this issue on the wreck in Oklahoma last month that resulted in 10 fatalities.

As you recall, the trucker, Donald Creed, 76, came upon a line of vehicles stopped for another accident.

Jerry quoted Capt. Scott Horton of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol as citing fatigue and heat exhaustion on the part of Creed as a possible contributing factor.

Horton said Creed began his shift that morning at 3 a.m. in Springfield, Mo., and was returning to Springfield when the accident occurred at 1 p.m.

We called the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and while it will eventually become part of the investigative record, Creed’s logbook is still part of the ongoing investigation and police aren’t saying anything about Creed’s activities in the days preceding the accident.

Based on the safety record of the company for which Creed drove, we suspect that Creed’s logbook will reveal nothing out of the ordinary during those days.

But we must stop here and ask is the ordinary safe enough for a 76-year-old driver?

There are two key points we’d like to make, so before you go firing up the PC to send a letter to the editor about age discrimination, hear us out.

First, at two years past 60, this writer doesn’t have the physical stamina he had at age 50, nor did he have the stamina at age 50 he had at 40.

He’s in pretty good shape, but he’s not 40.

Putting in 11 consecutive hours of work impacts me a lot differently now than at age 40.

Second there is the issue of physical condition.

Should it be any different for truckers as they age?

Let’s look at another transportation-related sector, airline pilots.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires that prior to age 40, to pilot a commercial airliner, a person must get a new medical certificate every 12 months.

Once that person reaches 40, he or she must get a new medical certificate every six months.

For most truckers, getting a new certificate is required every two years.

There are exceptions, but it would be safe to say that every two years is the norm.

Hold it, you say.

A commercial airline pilot might be responsible for 250 souls on board every time his or her plane takes off, but how many people died in the U.S. last year in commercial airline accidents and how many died in crashes involving commercial vehicles, albeit most of those are caused by four-wheelers?

Perhaps it is time for the Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to rethink the rules for getting medical certificates.

That and encouraging on-board safety systems through financial incentives could go a long way toward increasing safety on our highways.

Lyndon Finney of The Trucker staff can be reached for comment at editor@thetrucker.com.

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