NTSB Asks for Ban on Medications That Could Make Drivers Drowsy
The National Transportation Safety Board last week called for a prohibition on the use of certain legal drugs and medications by commercial vehicle operators while they are working. It was one of several recommendations arising from an NTSB probe into a bus-truck accident in Pennsylvania a year and a half ago.
The recommendations came in response to the June 20, 1998, accident in which a Greyhound bus traveling on the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Burnt Cabins, Pa., hit a tractor-trailer parked on the side of the highway. The bus driver and six passengers were killed. The remaining 16 passengers and the two occupants of the truck were injured in the pre-dawn crash.
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The board recommended that the Department of Transportation develop a list of approved medications that can be used safely by drivers and that DOT prohibit the use of unapproved medication before or during vehicle operation.
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The safety board said the accident occurred when the bus driven by Scott Wisner drifted off the road into the truck, which was pushed into another parked truck. The driver of the second truck was not injured.
