Trucker Headed to Court=SAD

[DreamStalker]

I wonder if age has anything to do with it? When I was younger I too could stay awake for two to three days (studying for mid-terms, finals, and term-papers) without any sleep. When I drove long distances, I would get drowsy but never felt like I would actually fall asleep while driving.

A few months before I was diagnosed with OSA this past summer, my boss was elbowing me in the ribs to wake me because I started snoring while sitting around a table with contractors during a discussion meeting (very embarrassing).

[Guest]

You can train it to a point, but depending on how bad of the OSA you have I feel at some point it CAN'T be controlled. In my own experience (AHI 116). I found without the unit anything longer then 10-15 minutes driving and I had to fight it hard and still nearly nod. Now I worked graveyards for years on more then 1 job from the age of 16 through to about the age of 24 and had worked up to 3 different jobs at a time at 1 point. I use to be able to stay awake but not loving it and would have agreed that it was a training thing. Now from like 2000 and up I have discovered that I can't fight it. I don't drive longer then 15 min alone and that would be pushing it.

Even at work in 1999 when I worked for Gateway just repairing PCs I would nod off writing my notes on the repairs and I would wake up with paragraphs full of whatever letter my finger was on when I fell asleep. Now, thinking back about it, the nodding was one of the reasons I took the Gateway desk job because it was becoming hard to be a traveling Tech. I use to work for a small local Network support business and use to drive about 50% of my normal day.

So in my experience YOU simply KNOW that your a danger on the road. The trucker was in a hard spot but regardless of what Doc said what or how informed he was, he KNEW he was a danger. When I was having problems at work and driving home I went in and had the study. I am sure he did the same. So again he KNEW because it was most likely what he went in for in the first place. Even if he didn't know and never went to a Doc, he was having a harder and harder time staying awake, he knew he had a problem as a profession driver. I KNEW I was a danger and modified my life to try to answer that danger. So to me, bottom line, even though I can totally understand the job and life issues involved, I feel he should have been responsible and looked for a way to deal with it, even if he chose not to treat the OSA or didn't know he had it.

My best friend was a OTR driver he would do crazy things to stay awake but after 4 years he knew it was getting harder and harder to stay awake. He has never checked for OSA. So he took a job driving a concrete mixer truck and drives only locally and not the 10 hours by law and the 14-16 hour not by law OTR truck driving thing. Yeah they carry log books, one for the company and 1 for the law. The larger outfits have satellite tracking systems so they can't bend the law much but the smaller outfits still use the 2 log book system.

The only way if I was on the jury that I would let this guy off would be with the blood test info from the accident being clear, a current sleep study showing a normal sleeping rating and a clear idea of how long this guy was driving via last stop and how and where he layed over and witnesses of this lay over. This also would have to be backed by a good explanation of why the truck veered through the median.

On the flip side of this though as sad as it is, it's things like this that bring meaning and seriousness to the medical condition OSA home to people. I wish it was easier for people who don't knew about it or don't take it seriously to believe that its a serious thing. I don't wish for things like this to happen but I think it would take a plane crash or something with high media coverage to bring home the message. That OSA is a serious medical condition and that it is not just some whiner crying about not sleeping enough.

So sad.

[hades161]

I was logged in but I guess I timed out

[Mile High Sleeper]

A National Sleep Foundation poll found that 60% of Americans have driven when sleepy and 37% admit to falling asleep at the wheel. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that people who are asleep at the wheel cause approximately 56,000 police-reported automobile crashes per year. Many sleepy drivers don’t realize they are a danger. Some clues from the National Sleep Foundation: frequent blinking, heavy eyelids; bobbing head, yawning, disconnected thoughts; trouble remembering the last few miles driven; missing exits or signs; drifting from your lane, feeling restless or irritable. For sleepy drivers, measures like rolling down the window, turning on music, or drinking caffeine don’t work. What they need is to pull over for a nap, and then get a good night’s sleep.

If you have undiagnosed and untreated sleep apnea, you could become one of those sleepy drivers. A study at the University of Pennsylvania found that about 1 in 3 truckers (28%) had sleep apnea. Less than 5% of cases have been diagnosed, and many doctors may still be unaware of this condition.

Spread the word about signs of sleep apnea.

[Rabid1]

A study at the University of Pennsylvania found that about 1 in 3 truckers (28%) had sleep apnea. Less than 5% of cases have been diagnosed, and many doctors may still be unaware of this condition.

That's just freakin' SCARY!!!

[kavanaugh1950]

rabid 1, i agree that is scary. i too was able to stay awake in my job as a nurse but my thinking and judgement were slowed and one night after working 11-7 i fell asleep driving home and only a trucker leaning on his air horn woke me and probably saved my life. i will forever be grateful to that trucker. but even scarier is all those people who do drugs, drink and smoke pot and drive. pat

[telly]

smoke pot and drive.

Not a good idea. Better to use your medication at home or leave the driving to others.

[RickSt]

I'm a truck driver with OSA. I wouldn't dream of going out overnight without my machine. There are more truckers on CPAP therapy than you may think and more going on it all the time. There are those misinformed that think that you shouldn't be a driver if you need CPAP. In reality it is just the opposite. CPAP has made us safer drivers.

Rick

[Rabid1]

[quote="RickSt"]I'm a truck driver with OSA. I wouldn't dream of going out overnight without my machine. There are more truckers on CPAP therapy than you may think and more going on it all the time. There are those misinformed that think that you shouldn't be a driver if you need CPAP. In reality it is just the opposite. CPAP has made us safer drivers.

Rick

[Patrick A]

http://www.saljournal.com/?module=displ ... ormat=html

This is sad on many levels.

People were killed and seriously injured.

The trucker's life will never be the same.

All their families have been affected.

The underlying sadness to this is the lack of understanding & acceptance of the seriousness of sleep apnea.

I'll wager if the trucker had serious heart disease, his license would have been suspended. The same goes for many other medical impairments. Doctors have the authority (and responsibility) to submit patients to DMV who pose a danger when driving. Why wasn't this done?

I feel for everyone's loss in this incident. It's just hard for me to view the trucker as a criminal, with the limited facts I have.

What are your thoughts?

Being retired truck driver myself i see another Truck driver getting the Shaft

I have not heard anything stating that you are disqualified from holding a CDL if you have Sleep Apnea. I do know that if you have Diabetes they do everything to disqualify you from driving a rig. But you can still be a police officer or fireman if you have Diabetes

[pedroski]

I bet if you tested every truck driver on the road for OSA at least 50% would show up having OSA. Same goes for every train Engineer, Airline pilot etc. What do you do if after 12 or more years of education to become a surgeon you get diagnosed with OSA? So do you give up your career? If you are smart you never get the diagnosis because it can be career ending. Do they put you on disability for OSA? Not likely. How is the guy supposed to make a living.

I agree with snoredog. EVERY fatality is a terrible tragedy, no matter what the cause. We have been aware of the link between alcohol and driver fatalities for many years and yet people persist in drink driving BUT because of extensive advertising, EVERYONE is now aware of the problem. However OSA is involuntary and many don't know they have it.

We should use tragic stories like this one to spur us to lobby our politicians etc for greater awareness of OSA, as well as becoming roving pap evangelists, which I gather most of those motivated enough to participate in a forum like this one already are.

Spread the word!

Peter

[OSAGuy]

I'm sure this post will once again be deleted by you guys. I really think you are missing the point in the article. When I seem comments in the article like falsifying logs I have no sympathy at all for the truck driver, as he dserves what he gets. Sounds like the issue is more one of lying in the logs, etc. The fact that the truck driver has OSA really isn;t material when logs are falsified. Lets have sympathy for the victims in this case, which is the family members the truck driver is accused of killing, not the truck driver.

[Rabid1]

I'm sure this post will once again be deleted by you guys. I really think you are missing the point in the article. When I seem comments in the article like falsifying logs I have no sympathy at all for the truck driver, as he dserves what he gets. Sounds like the issue is more one of lying in the logs, etc. The fact that the truck driver has OSA really isn;t material when logs are falsified. Lets have sympathy for the victims in this case, which is the family members the truck driver is accused of killing, not the truck driver.

Why would your post be deleted? This thread was asking for people's thoughts, and you're certainly entitled to yours.

What I'm gathering from most of the responses, is great sympathy for the victims, and some understanding for the trucker. The article didn't give enough info to really judge his culpability.

[Patrick A]

http://www.saljournal.com/?module=displ ... ormat=html

This is sad on many levels.

People were killed and seriously injured.

The trucker's life will never be the same.

All their families have been affected.

The underlying sadness to this is the lack of understanding & acceptance of the seriousness of sleep apnea.

I'll wager if the trucker had serious heart disease, his license would have been suspended. The same goes for many other medical impairments. Doctors have the authority (and responsibility) to submit patients to DMV who pose a danger when driving. Why wasn't this done?

I feel for everyone's loss in this incident. It's just hard for me to view the trucker as a criminal, with the limited facts I have.

What are your thoughts?

Being retired truck driver myself i see another Truck driver getting the Shaft

I have not heard anything stating that you are disqualified from holding a CDL if you have Sleep Apnea. I do know that if you have Diabetes they do everything to disqualify you from driving a rig. But you can still be a police officer or fireman if you have Diabetes

I forgot to put down that I was originally diagnosed with OSA in 1988, By Kaiser Permenente Medical Hospital.......They did nothing about it I wonder if I could go after them for malpractice? I was not retested for OSA until 2005 by a OWCP DOL Doctor.

Also at that time I held a CDL I did not give my CDL up until it expired in 2006, and nothing was ever said about not being qualified because of OSA.

[Rabid1]

Patrick,

Should there be any form of monitoring or sanctioning of Commercial Truckers if they are diagnosed with OSA?