On Mother’s Day 1999, 22 persons died when a Coach USA bus, carrying 43 passengers and operated by Frank Bedell, drifted off the highway and crashed into an embankment. The National Transportation Safety Board immediately sent a team to the site and conducted a major investigation into the accident. Their findings are disturbing.

In 1998, the driver was diagnosed with kidney failure. At the time of the accident, Bedell’s routine included kidney dialysis treatments three days a week, and intravenous medication therapy three days a week. Just 12 hours before the accident, Bedell had been taken to an emergency room after nearly losing consciousness. He had lost two previous driving jobs for positive results on random drug tests. He was denied another driving job for yet another positive drug test.

In spite of this overwhelming negative history, Bedell still held a commercial driver’s license and a valid medical certificate.

According to the Times-Picayune newspaper, the NTSB determined that the probable cause of the accident was the bus driver’s incapacitation due to his severe medical conditions and the failure of the medical certification process to detect the problems and remove the driver from service.

To prevent tragic accidents like this one, the Safety Board asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to:

• Establish a comprehensive medical oversight program for interstate commercial drivers;

• Ensure that medical examiners are qualified and know what to look for;

• Track all medical certificate applications;

• Improve oversight and enforcement of invalid certificates; and

• Set up mechanisms for reporting medical conditions.

In response, the FMCSA established a medical division and has plans to create a National Registry of Physicians. However, five years after the accident the medical certification process for commercial driver’s licenses looks much the way it did in 1999.

In an eight-state study of 182 fatal accidents, the NTSB found that 10 percent of truck and bus drivers who were killed had a major health problem that was a major factor in the accident.

Commercial truck and bus drivers must periodically take and pass a physical examination. However, unlike the FAA’s program for commercial pilots, any doctor, chiropractor, nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant can approve medical certification for commercial truck and bus drivers.

Even if the examiner finds something wrong, the lack of a central reporting system encourages drivers to “shop around” until he or she finds a medical professional who will sign his or her medical card, often after little more than a nod and a handshake.

Dr. Natalie Hartenbaum, an occupational physician in Maple Glen, Pa., was quoted in Roadstar magazine as saying, “There have been cases where drivers have been incredulous that I asked them to disrobe and put on a gown, because that had never happened to them before.”

It is obvious that Thomas Ries of Murrysville, Pa., was never asked to disrobe. Every two years for the past 20 years, Ries took and passed his Department of Transportation physical. For those 20 years, doctors never noticed his artificial leg.

Ries’ secret was recently discovered. He has since applied for and received a special waiver that now allows him to operate a commercial vehicle legally.

According to Sandy Zywokarte, the nurse responsible for the medical certification program at the FMCSA, reform is being directed along two fronts.

First, the form used in the medical exam and the materials used to guide examiners are being revised.

Second, a notice of proposed rulemaking suggests that the medical certification process be linked directly to the commercial drivers license. Also under consideration is the formation of a central registry and testing program to certify DOT medical examiners.

All this is well and good, but if a commercial driver fails a drug screen – as Bedell did – there is, at present, no central clearinghouse for that information. When Bedell applied for employment at the company he was working for at the time of the fatal crash, he simply did not list companies that had terminated him for positive tests.

When a driver at the Billerica, Mass., terminal of Pottle’s Transportation tested positive for drugs, Mike Rennicke, then operations manager, had no alternative but to fire him. Later, Rennicke became incensed when he discovered that the fired employee was soon working again – driving a truck.

Rennicke wrote his local, state and national legislators seeking comment on the situation. He has yet to receive a single reply. Such lack of initiative on the government’s part has caused some employers to institute their own reforms.

According to Coach USA’s Peter Van Beek, a close look at the doctors performing the physicals on his drivers revealed that private physicians regularly missed disqualifying conditions.

Coach USA set some new policies. Before becoming employed, all drivers must go to clinics chosen by the company. Coach USA developed a procedure manual and distributed it to each of these clinics. The clinics in turn must sign a contract stating that they will follow the company’s guidelines when examining drivers.

There are other companies as responsible as Coach USA, but for the most part the industry seems to be waiting for the government to lead it by the hand. When that happens many will scream about government intervention.

To these I say, you have had plenty of time to get your houses in order, but did nothing. Now, the government-of-the-people will do it for you.

Guy Bourrie has been hauling on the highways for 20 years. He lives in Washington, Maine, and can be reached at [email protected].