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ROADMap HITTING SNOOZE Sleep apnea rules far away, but lawsuits happen now


Workforce QA, a Utah-based employee testing company with an office in Dallas, said any regulations likely would be years away. Medical data must be gathered, and then it can take a couple of years to make the rules, and then it can take another year to get the rules in place. “I just don’t see it happening,” he said. With no regulations, medical examin-


BY STEVE BRAWNER Contributing Writer


When someone receives a bad medi-


cal diagnosis, they often ask for a second opinion. Currently, when it comes to sleep apnea, there are 30,000 of them. That’s how many physicians are


included in FMCSA’s certified medical reg- istry, which was released May 21. FMCSA requires drivers to be medi-


cally certified that they do not suffer from a respiratory dysfunction such as sleep apnea that could interfere with safe driv- ing. The OK must come from a certified physician who has attended a training sem- inar and taken an exam. But no FMCSA regulation concretely spells out what sleep apnea is or when a driver has it. That’s not likely to change in the near


32 Winter 2015


future. Legislation, passed by Congress and signed by President Obama last year, requires the Department of Transportation to undergo a formal rulemaking process for sleep apnea regulations. The American Trucking Associations


(ATA) supported that legislation. While it does slow down the process, Rob Abbott, ATA vice president, safety policy, said what’s needed are regulations based on sci- ence and data that show a clear correlation with crash risks. It’s not clear when that will happen. “We hope sooner rather than later,”


said Sean Garney, ATA manager of safety policy. “I think that would provide the industry with a little bit of comfort if we got this process going, but next year, year after, it’s tough to know.” David Saunders, president of


ers can rely on past guidance. The FMCSA’s Medical Review Board issued recommen- dations in 2008, but the FMCSA did not act on them. Recommendations then were issued jointly in February 2012 by the FMCSA’s Medical Review Board and its Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Council. The FMCSA published those recommenda- tions in April of that year and then rescinded them that same day, explaining the sudden reversal as a clerical error. Still, with nothing else to go by, these are seen by many as an industry standard. Absent clear direction, medical exam-


iners are left to make judgment calls based on risk factors such as body mass index, neck size and a driver’s voluntary com- ments. When in doubt, they often decide to play it safe rather than risk a lawsuit in case there is a crash. “It’s all based on a plethora of one-off


studies and medical guidance’s,” Garney said. “Certainly a regulation would allow motor carriers and the medical community to say, ‘These are the guidelines by which I must act’ and allow them to make their decisions from there.” Saunders said the lack of regulations


mean the fear of litigation is driving the motor carrier industry’s response to sleep


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