PANEL URGES HEALTH RULES FOR BUS DRIVERS

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 (AP) -- The federal government does little to ensure
that bus drivers are healthy and drug-free, an investigation into a bus
crash in New Orleans that killed 22 women has found.

The National Transportation Safety Board today attributed the crash, which
was on Mother's Day in 1999, to the driver's poor health and the failure of
the doctors who had examined him to try to take him off the road.

The driver, Frank Bedell, died of a heart attack three months later. He had
been cleared to drive despite suffering from heart disease and kidney
failure. He tested positive for marijuana after the crash and had twice
been fired from other bus companies for that reason. His last employer did
not know he had failed earlier drug tests.

The safety board recommended tighter standards for medical examinations
that bus and truck drivers must pass every two years and for procedures to
allow a prospective employer to find out whether an applicant has a drug
problem.

The board also renewed its suggestion for bus design standards that would
more effectively protect passengers in crashes. Improving bus safety has
been one of the highest priorities among the board's recommended improvements.

The recommendations are part of the final report on the crash of the
chartered bus, which ran off an Interstate highway and crashed through a
guardrail and down an embankment. Twenty-two members of a retirees'
gambling club heading to a Gulf Coast casino died.

Ken Suydam, chief investigator of the crash, said the bus driver's medical
history should have made him ineligible for a commercial driver's license.

A police report blamed the driver's use of marijuana for the crash. His
health problems were discussed but not listed as factors.

In hearings on the crash, transportation experts told the board that
drivers shopped around for doctors who were willing to certify even those
with serious health problems.