Something else to help the image of the trucker...
 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25784582/

Originally Posted by :
WASHINGTON - Tractor-trailer and bus drivers in the United States have suffered seizures, heart attacks or unconscious spells behind the wheel that led to deadly crashes on highways. Hundreds of thousands of drivers carry commercial licenses even though they also qualify for full federal disability payments, according to a new U.S. safety study obtained by The Associated Press.

The problems threatening highway travelers persist despite years of government warnings and hundreds of deaths and injuries blamed on drivers who blacked out, collapsed or suffered major health problems behind the wheels of vehicles that can weigh 40 tons or more.

The U.S. agency responsible for cracking down on unfit truckers, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, acknowledges it hasn't completed any of eight recommendations that U.S. safety regulators have proposed since 2001.

The story is 3 pages long.

ugh
 

Its just more heavily spun garbage by people who fear/hate trucks and have an agenda

Read it earlier Mal, I agree with some of it but not all of it on both sides of the issue. I can see a national network of doctors approved by the govt. that do physicals and all drivers have to go to those within the network only or their medical card is no good.

I'm so sick of MSNBC. Every article they produce is absolute garbage. They seem to forget about all the other vehicles on the road (4-wheelers) that cause far more many accidents every year than those that hold commercial licenses. Driving is dangerous for any and every vehicle on the road. Definetly an agenda behind story's like this.

Re: ugh
 

Originally Posted by cdreid:
Its just more heavily spun garbage by people who fear/hate trucks and have an agenda

The entire mainstream media is heavily spun garbage by people who have an agenda, regardless of topic!

I do not watch the "news" anymore and am alot healthier and less stressed as a result.

I just happened to look at the national news section of my hometown news and saw that link.

lol, i don't wory about it, i already have plenty of ppl just snarl and growl at me as they pass me. if looks could kill i'd be dead at least 100 times. definatly not in this job for the respect.

Originally Posted by :
Hundreds of thousands of drivers carry commercial licenses even though they also qualify for full federal disability payments, according to a new U.S. safety study obtained by The Associated Press.

Somehow, I have a feeling that someone is OVER-STATING the numbers. I don't doubt that there are some, but I would be fairly certain that they are in the minority. I would suspect that many of them aren't even aware that they fall into that group, and the ones that know about it are looking at the difference in money. I know a couple of people that are collecting the "federal disability payments", and they're only getting $600 a month. Try to live on that. And, especially, when the illegal aliens get far more benefits than that.

I would like to know how they came up with those numbers. Hundreds of thousands of drivers is hard to believe.

Someone help me here....... Can you renew your CDL at the DMV without a medical card? If so, then the statement "might" be true. I'm sure there there are many that keep their CDL status but do not "drive" a rig anymore. Just a thought???