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Opinion: The Diabetic Trucker Debate
By Mark Perkins
Perkins & Associates LLC
This Opinion piece appears in the May 28 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration recently has been reconsidering regulations prohibiting insulin-dependent drivers with diabetes from driving.
That prompts the discussion of some ideas on defending claims of negligent supervision/retention if a driver who has tested positive for diabetes continues to be allowed to drive.
A few years ago, my firm defended an accident involving three large tractor-trailers and a passenger vehicle. The company we represented employed a driver whose rig was rear-ended by another 18-wheeler after exiting a rest area.
The rig that rear-ended him came to rest in the median of an interstate, while “our” driver pulled to the shoulder. A few minutes later a passenger car maneuvered around the debris but was rear-ended by another big rig.
The theory of liability against our driver was in causing the first accident. But when the physical evidence and eyewitness testimony did not support this, the plaintiff’s legal team turned their focus to blaming the company for retaining a driver who was found to have high blood sugar — four months after the crash.
Our strategy was to exclude any evidence not related to the specific accident — particularly regarding the driver’s diagnosis of Type II diabetes and temporary loss of medical certification, which also happened four months after the accident and lasted only one day.
The plaintiff’s attorneys tried to argue that, since the driver turned out to be diabetic later on, he probably was already suffering from the effects of insulin-dependent diabetes at the time of the accident.
These arguments were made, even though there was only limited evidence that the driver was diabetic at the time of the accident.
But more important, even if the driver was diabetic at the time of the crash, there was no evidence that it contributed to the accident. In fact, when the driver’s diabetes was diagnosed, his physician determined that he didn’t need insulin to control it.
After only one day without medical certification, the trucker was recertified to drive tractor-trailer rigs.
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