Experts concerned about sleep apnea among truckers

Sleep apnea can be a difficult condition to deal with for any individual, and it can especially affect truck drivers. According to the Huffington Post, some experts say that more drivers should be tested for this condition particularly those who are overweight, which could ensure improvement in trucker health nationwide.

A proposal has been developed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association (FMCSA) to screen all truckers for their quality of health. They say that if the driver does not seek treatment, it could be grounds for disqualification or suspension from working on the road. The main concern is that drivers with sleep apnea can become drowsy and cause dangerous accidents on the job.

Land Line magazine reports that the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association supports trucking safety, but is concerned that drowsiness is due to exhaustion, not sleep apnea.

“Does apnea result in very many crashes?" Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the OOIDA, said in a statement. "Real accident analysis suggests it doesn’t. It’s going to be far more likely that somebody just didn’t have the opportunity to get restorative sleep because that’s not an easy thing for truck drivers to do."

Experts concerned about sleep apnea among truckers

Monday, December 19th, 2011