The Deadly Consequences of Obstructive Sleep Apnea for Commercial Truck Drivers

On September 29, 2016, a New Jersey Transit engineer with undiagnosed sleep apnea was operating a train which crashed into the Hoboken train station killing one and injuring 100 people. The train engineer had received a medical examination two months prior to the crash, but was not tested for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). After the accident, the National Transportation Safety Board reported that the engineer had been diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea after the accident.

A train accident in NJ might not seem like a cause for concern for the people of Mississippi, but it should be. Sleep apnea affects people of all regions and in all professions. If a commercial truck driver suffers with the condition, that driver could be at risk of falling asleep behind the wheel – and that could lead to a deadly collision.

What is obstructive sleep apnea?

Obstructive sleep apnea is a disorder that affects about 25 million people in the U.S. and causes a person to stop breathing momentarily during sleep. The pauses in breathing can last for ten seconds and can happen as much as 400 times in one night. Sleep apnea often goes undiagnosed because the symptoms only manifest during sleep. The affected person’s sleeping partner may be the one who suspects the signs of the condition because of the loud snoring, and then the person stops breathing and then starts again. The constant lapses in breathing causes interruptions in sleep, which can result in the person being groggy at times during day due to their mounting sleep deficit.

A commercial truck driver or transportation engineer with undiagnosed sleep apnea can be a danger to themselves and to the other drivers with whom they share the road because they are prone to falling asleep at the wheel on the job which requires driving for hours on end often at night.

Sleep apnea causes difficulty in the commercial truck and transportation industry because many drivers in the industry often tick all the boxes for risk factors for sleep apnea, which include:

• Being overweight
• A family history of sleep apnea
• Smoking and alcohol use
• Being age 40 or older

Certain physical characteristics – such as having a small upper airway, a large neck, a recessed chin, a small jaw, or a large overbite – can also cause the condition.

The Harvard Medical School Division of Sleep Medicine published a report about sleep apnea, which said the following:

• About 20% of crashes are due to a driver falling asleep at the wheel.
• About 250,000 drivers in the U.S. fall asleep at the wheel every day.
• There is a drowsy driving crash every 25 seconds, which adds up to 1.2 million drowsy driving crashes each year
• With approximately 7,500 deaths each year, there is a drowsy driving fatality every 70 minutes in the U.S.
• A drowsy driving injury occurs each minute with 500,000 injuries each year, 55,000 of which are debilitating injuries

Treatment for sleep apnea

A study published in the journal Sleep Medicine found that truck drivers who have sleep apnea, but do not follow their treatment program, are more likely to be involved in a crash. Typical treatment for sleep apnea includes using a CPAP machine, which keeps the airways open during sleep. The drivers in the study were given a CPAP machine to use at home and in their truck’s sleeping compartment. Researchers tracked the participants use of the machine through a memory chip placed in each machine. The researchers found that the rate of serious, preventable crashes was five times higher among truckers with sleep apnea who did not use their CPAP machine as compared to the control group according to a CBS News story.

In August 2017, just weeks prior to the Hoboken train accident, the Trump administration officially withdrew a proposed rulemaking by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) which would have established criteria and processes for screening for sleep apnea for truck drivers. The Metro-North railroad that already tests its employees for obstructive sleep apnea found that 11.6% of their engineers have the condition. (StatNews)

If you or a loved one was injured in a truck accident, call us today at 662-627-9641 or complete our contact form to schedule a free consultation. While we primarily work from our offices in Jackson and Clarksdale, our truck accident attorneys also serve injured clients throughout Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas.