HEALTH OF DRIVERS FACTOR IN CRASHES

Federal Board Urges Tighter Standards For Bus And Truck Operators' Medical
Exams

WASHINGTON - Bus and truck drivers should be required to undergo more
stringent physical examinations, federal officials said Tuesday, linking
recent crashes to drivers with heart problems, kidney disease and poorly
controlled diabetes.

In its final report on the Mother's Day 1999 bus crash that killed 22
people in New Orleans, the National Transportation Safety Board said the
federal government should make sure that doctors who perform the exams know
the demands of driving a truck or bus, learn how health problems can affect
drivers' performances and be able to find out whether an applicant failed
an earlier exam. The exams are given every two years.

In addition, the board said, doctors and others who have concerns about a
driver's health should be able to tell state and federal officials without
risk of being sued.

The New Orleans crash was one of several accidents in the past two years
involving bus or truck drivers with medical problems.

Despite being hospitalized for heart and kidney disease 10 times in the 20
months before the accident, the driver in the New Orleans crash was
repeatedly cleared to renew his commercial license, and doctors never
reported his health problems to state or federal officials. Three months
after the crash, the driver, Frank Bedell, died of a heart attack.

Bedell also had been fired from two previous jobs after failing drug tests,
but his last employer had no way to learn that information. After the
crash, Bedell tested positive for marijuana.

The NTSB blamed the crash on the driver's health and the failure of the
doctors to try to take him off the road.

"Medical personnel need to report unfit drivers to the proper authorities,"
acting NTSB Chairwoman Carol Carmody said.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which oversees the bus and
truck industry, plans to review the NTSB recommendations.