To ensure that only medically qualified individuals are allowed to operate an interstate truck or busFMCSA today 12/1/2008 issued a final rule that will require states to merge the commercial driver’s license ( CDL ) and the driver’s medical examination certificate into a single electronic record.  When fully implemented by the states in three years,  the new combined CDL will streamline record keeping obligations for the states and CDL holders,  while providing instant electronic access to the CDL holder’s medical certificate by state and federal enforcement officials.

The rule will require doctors who certify drivers for CDL submit their examination to a national registry online at FMCSA with the name and a numerical identifier for each driver who is examined.

In addition,  the rule requires states to take enforcement actions against CDL holders if they do not provide medical certification status information within the deadline.

The proposal also would create a process by which medical examiners who fail to meet or maintain the minimum standards would be removed from the National Registry.

The final rule on Medical Certification Requirements as Part of the CDL is available for review at www.fmcsa.dot.gov.

New federal rules will make the nation’s 474,000 school buses safer by requiring higher seat backs, mandating lap and shoulder belts on small school buses and setting safety standards for seat belts on large school buses, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters announced today.

Secretary Peters said the new rule requires all new school buses in America to be equipped with 24-inch-high seat backs, instead of the 20-inch-high seat backs required today.  Higher seat backs will help prevent taller and heavier children from being thrown over the seat in a crash, decreasing the chance of injury to them and the children in front of them.

She added that all new school buses weighing less than five tons will be required to have three-point seat belts.  She noted that the lap and shoulder belts better protect children in small buses, adding that smaller school buses are more vulnerable because they don’t absorb shock as well as larger buses.

Deputy Secretary of Transportation Admiral Thomas Barrett noted that a phone call from the Governor Riley to Secretary Peters following a November 2006 bus crash in Huntsville helped prompt the new rule.  “The fact that there are so few fatalities on buses every year is little solace for a grieving parent or a saddened governor,” Barrett said.

To read today’s rule, go to: http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/DOT/NHTSA/Rulemaking/Rules/Associated%20Files/SchoolBusBeltsFinal.pdf

WASHINGTON - New Federal data showing further steep declines in the number of miles Americans are driving is additional proof that the country needs new means - other than the gas tax - to finance the nation’s transportation infrastructure, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters said today.

“By driving less and using more fuel-efficient vehicles, Americans are showing us that the highways of tomorrow cannot be supported solely by the federal gas tax,” Secretary Peters said. “We must embrace more sustainable funding sources for highways and bridges through more sustainable and effective ways such as congestion pricing and private activity bonds.”

Secretary Peters said that Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) in May 2008 than in May 2007, according to the Federal Highway Administration data. This is the largest drop in VMT for any May, which typically reflects increased traffic due to Memorial Day vacations and the beginning of summer, and is the third-largest monthly drop in the 66 years such data have been recorded. Three of the largest single-month declines - each topping 9 billion miles - have occurred since December.

VMT on all public roads for May 2008 fell 3.7 percent as compared with May 2007 travel, the Secretary added, marking a decline of 29.8 billion miles traveled in the first five months of 2008 than the same period a year earlier. This continues a seven-month trend that amounts to 40.5 billion fewer miles traveled between November 2007 and May 2008 than the same period a year before, she said.

As Americans drive less and rely increasingly on mass transit, carpooling or other options, the federal Highway Trust Fund receives less revenue from gasoline and diesel sales - 18.4 cents per gallon and
24.4 cents per gallon, respectively.

“Less driving means less money for the Highway Trust Fund,” said Acting Federal Highway Administrator Jim Ray. “The status quo cannot and will not work in the 21st century.”

To review the FHWA’s “Traffic Volume Trends” reports for May 2008, visit http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/tvtw/tvtpage.htm.

Summary of Final Rule for Specimen Validity Testing

Published in today’s Federal Register is a Department of Transportation Final Rule:

Procedures for Transportation Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs

In summary:

1. This Final Rule makes it mandatory for laboratories to test all DOT specimens for specimen validity (i.e., adulterants and urine substitutes) and for laboratories to follow all Department of Health and Human Resources (HHS) protocols for doing so.

2. Observed collections will afford less privacy in order to guard against employee use of items designed specifically to beat the testing process.

a. Directly observed collections will continue to occur only when there is a specific reason to believe that an employee may be attempting, or have sufficient reason, to evade the testing process.

b. Items such as prosthetic devices designed to carry clean urine will be checked for by observers with both male and female donors. The observer will have the employee raise and lower clothing, and then put it back into place for the observed collection.

c. Observed collections will now be required, rather than optional, for all return-to-duty and follow-up drug testing.

3. In an effort to thwart those who would manufacturer products designed to adulterate specimens, the Final Rule will no longer have easy-to-follow tables and charts outlining the adulterants for which laboratories are testing and the scientific cutoff levels at which laboratories are testing them.

4. Definitions in the Final Rule have been changed to harmonize with the HHS.

5. During an invalid result Medical Review Officer (MRO) review, an employee admission of adulterating or substituting a specimen is now a refusal to test.

6. Pursuant to MRO requests, the Final Rule will close the potentially endless loop on invalid specimen results; and employees requiring negative results [for example, pre-employment tests], when they have medical reasons for providing invalid results, will be able to obtain them through medical evaluations to rule out signs and symptoms of drug use.

7. The Final Rule will also streamline and simplify the potential myriad of complicated laboratory-confirmed and MRO-verified drug test results.

8. The Final Rule requires drug testing laboratories to report to DOT semi-annual statistical summaries on all of their DOT testing.

9. The Final Rule effective date is August 25, 2008.

Click To VIew PDF of the Federal Register’s DOT Procedures for Transportation Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Young adults who abuse amphetamines may be raising their risk of suffering a heart attack, a new study shows.

Texas researchers found that among more than 3 million 18- to 44-year- olds hospitalized in their state between 2000 and 2003, those who were abusing amphetamines were 61 percent more likely than non-users to be treated for a heart attack.

What’s more, the rate of amphetamine-linked heart attacksrose by 166 percent over the 4-year study period. That compared with a 4-percent rise in cocaine-related heart attacks, the researchers report in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

“Most people aren’t surprised that methamphetamines and amphetamines are bad for your health,” lead researcher Dr. Arthur Westover said in a statement.

“But we are concerned because heart attacks in the young are rare and can be very debilitating or deadly,” added Westover, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Amphetamines stimulate the central nervous system and some are used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. But they are also frequently used illegally; one potent form of amphetamine, methamphetamine, is a growing problem in many U.S. cities.

Cases of heart attack in young people have been linked to amphetamine abuse before, but the current study appears to be the first large- scale look at the epidemiology of the problem.

Westover and his colleagues used a statewide database to examine information on more than 3.1 million 18- to 44-year-olds discharged from Texas hospitals between 2000 and 2003. Overall, 11,011 of these patients (0.35 percent) were treated for a heart attack.

The database also contained information on whether a patient had been diagnosed with any type of drug-abuse problem. The researchers found that patients with a diagnosis of amphetamine abuse or dependence were at increased risk of suffering a heart attack.

Amphetamines have various effects that could precipitate a heart attack, Westover and his colleagues point out. The drugs are well known to speed up heart rate and blood pressure, but they can also trigger spasms in the heart arteries and promote blood clotting.

In people who already have “plaque” deposits in their heart arteries, amphetamines may cause a plaque to rupture, which can then lead to a heart attack.

Besides the risk to individual amphetamine users, Westover said, “we’re also concerned that the number of amphetamine-related heart attacks could be increasing.”

“We’d rather raise the warning flag now than later,” he added. “Hopefully, we can decrease the number of people who suffer heart attacks as the result of amphetamine abuse.”

SOURCE: Drug and Alcohol Dependence, July 2008.

SOURCE: Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2008;

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ –

Today, GHSA released itsresponse to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on school bus safety. In the letter, the Association indicated it was primarily concerned about the funding of the proposed changes. The part of the proposal that concerns GHSA is the section that applies to large school buses.

According to the proposed rule, school districts that decide to add seat belts could apply for existing federal highway safety grant funds to cover the cost of the additional safety equipment. While this use of grant funds is not new, the additional focus on the issue may cause states to be pressured to spend federal highway safety money for this purpose to the detriment of many competing highway safety needs.

The greatest dangers to children, as evidenced by years of data from the Fatal Analysis Reporting System are the areas around school buses and on the way to and from school. To address this, the DOT and states have wisely implemented engineering improvements as well as the Safe Routes to School program. As the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has argued in the past, school buses are an incredibly safe form of transportation. This is demonstrated in each state’s crash data.

Currently, GHSA members ensure that federal highway safety funds are spent in areas that will have the most lifesaving benefit. Largely these are directed to critical occupant protection, drunk driving and speeding programs. The funds are limited and could be quickly devoured if a state is pressured to use
its federal funding for seat belts on school buses. Using Maryland as an example, the state receives approximately 3.3 million dollars each year for its basic behavioral highway safety program. The state could spend that full amount on the school bus improvements and barely meet the need.

States are increasingly developing data-based highway safety programs that show the most likelihood of reducing fatalities. Funding seat belts on school buses does not meet that criterion.

GHSA urges DOT to rethink this position and if it moves forward suggests Secretary Peters ask Congress for a new funding source in the next highway reauthorization.

To view the DOT’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, visit www.nhtsa.dot.gov.

GHSA’s comments on the proposal are posted here.

The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) is a nonprofit association representing the highway safety offices of states, territories, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. GHSA provides leadership and representation for the states and territories to improve traffic safety, influence national policy and enhance program management. Its members are appointed by their Governors to administer federal and state highway safety funds and implement state highway safety plans.

Contact GHSA at 202.789.0942 or visit www.ghsa.org.

SOURCE Governors Highway Safety Association

Jonathan Adkins of the Governors Highway Safety Association,

+1-202-789-0942, jadkins@ghsa.org