Trucking and Bus Accident Litigation

• Review of Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Medical Fitness DOT Medical “Long Forms” (Medical Examination Report Form, MCSA #5875)
• Review of Medical Records (Driver)
• Review of Driver Qualification (DQ) File
• Review of Substance Abuse Testing and Substance Abuse Professional (SAP) Assessments
• Review of Corporate Policies and Testimony Regarding Medical Monitoring and Fitness of Drivers
• Review of Accident Reconstruction Reports to Help Determine if there was a medical issue
• Review Hours of Service reports to determine if fatigue factored into an accident
• Prepare opinions on medical fitness of a driver

Contrary to other medical experts who do not have daily medical practice, Dr. Fletcher provides a unique level of expertise for your trucking and bus accident case because he performs driver medical certification examinations on an everyday basis in his SafeWorks Illinois medical office.

Dr. Fletcher is a nationally recognized expert in driver medical fitness. Dr. Fletcher has published and spoken on topics related to medical fitness of truck drivers, including driver fatigue, obstructive sleep apnea, cardiovascular issues, and diabetes.

His expert qualifications regarding medical fitness of drivers include, but are not limited to the following:

• Dual-board certified physician in preventative medicine and occupational medicine, Dr. Fletcher is also a certified Medical Review Officer (MRO) and a certified Substance Abuse Professional (SAP), both of which are important credentials to have in an expert reviewing complex litigation regarding truck and bus litigation, especially when substance abuse may be a factor.
• Fletcher is a Fellow in the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).
• Fletcher is certified on the National Registry for Certified Medical Examiners (NRCME) for the US Department of Transportation. (NRCME certification number 2987172716).
• Fletcher is the Medical Director of SafeWorks Illinois Occupational Health Services, a private occupational medicine practice that performs medical certification examinations for commercial motor vehicle and bus drivers. SafeWorks performs an average of 1,000 DOT medical examinations each year. Dr. Fletcher has personally performed over 20,000 DOT medical examinations throughout his career.
• In addition to certifying truck and bus drivers for medical fitness to drive, Dr. Fletcher is a senior Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), another operating mode of the DOT, that requires medical certification of commercial and private pilots. Fletcher has performed thousands of medical examinations on pilots to certify their medical fitness to fly an airplane.
• Fletcher serves as the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Champaign Urbana Mass Transit District (CUMTD), a public governmental agency that relies on his unbiased assessment of their bus drivers to protect the public safety by ensuring that only medically fit drivers are on the road. This governmental public agency depends on Dr. Fletcher’s thorough understanding of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) regulations and how they apply to driver fitness.
• In October 1993, Dr. Fletcher proposed the first overhaul of the DOT Medical Certification System [1] based on the need to change the then current system of inadequate certification and the need for major changes to protect the public from unfit drivers.
• On May 21, 2014, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) adopted a certification process for examiner competency and to improve the training process with the advent of the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners (NRCME) that incorporated several key points of Dr. Fletcher’s 1993 proposal.
• In 1995, Dr. Fletcher conceived and proctored the first national training program for physicians regarding DOT medical certification issues relating to commercial truck drivers.
• In 1996, Dr. Fletcher served as one of two physician representatives on a national advisory panel for the DOT Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) with the overarching goal to develop new regulations as well as merge the Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) procedures with the physical qualifications necessary to obtain a CDL.
• Assessing drivers for undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a major aspect of Dr. Fletcher’s clinical practice as a DOT medical examiner. It is imperative that an examiner not certify any commercial driver that suffers from respiratory conditions which would impact their ability to drive safely, including sleep apnea. See, e.g., 49 CFR § 391.41(a)(3)(b)(5) and Appendix A to Part 391 – Medical Advisory Criteria (respiratory dysfunction).
• Although Dr. Fletcher is not a board-certified sleep doctor and refers drivers to specialists to conduct sleep studies to confirm sleep apnea, understanding sleep apnea and sleep studies is an important part of his clinical practice in caring for drivers within the transportation industry.
• Fletcher has been consistently retained by both plaintiff and defense counsel in trucking-related cases and has never had any Daubert exclusions for his testimony regarding medical fitness of a driver.

• Fletcher served as the plaintiff’s medical expert in the 1999 Mother’s Day Custom Bus crash in New Orleans that killed 22 passengers and went all the way to the US Supreme Court, and was also investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)[2]
• Fletcher served as one of the plaintiffs’ medical experts in the November 2016 Baltimore School Bus crash that killed six people and was the subject of a NTSB investigation.[3]
• Fletcher served as the plaintiff’s expert in the Lindsey v Celadon case.[4] Dr Fletcher opined that Celadon’s driver had untreated obstructive sleep apnea and was the proximate cause of the accident which killed John Lindsey on May 7, 2010 in Texas. The case settled right at the eve of trial in May 2011. Aspen Insurance UK Limited and Hiscox, LT Companies paid the victims’ damages on behalf of Celadon. With the settlement, the widow Wanda Lindsay, created the John Lindsay Foundation to improve public awareness of the dangers of undiagnosed drivers with sleep apnea affecting the commercial motor vehicle industry.[5] In 2012,  Aspen Insurance filed suit against Community Hospital in Indiana, alleging its provider negligently issued the medical certificate to Celadon driver David Downey.[6] Aspen hired Dr. Fletcher to be their expert in a suit filed after they had paid out damages to the Lindsey family.

In each of the above cases, Dr. Fletcher’s expert testimony assisted in pre-trial resolution.

[1] Fletcher, DJ “Revamping the DOT Medical Certification Process: The Time Has Come” Journal of Occupational Medicine April 1996, American Occupational Health Conference, San Antonio, Texas

[2] In this crash that occurred in New Orleans on Mother’s Day 1999, 22 passengers were killed, 15 passengers and the driver suffered serious injuries, and 6 passengers had minor injuries. This case was the subject of a special investigation by the National Safety Transportation Board (NSTB). Dr. Fletcher testified that the bus driver, who survived the initial accident, was not medically fit to drive and his medical conditions(s) were the proximate cause of the accident.  The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concurred with Dr. Fletcher’s testimony in their determination that the cause of this accident was due to the driver’s incapacitation, stemming from his severe medical conditions, combined with the failure of the medical certification process to detect and remove the driver from operational service. Motorcoach Run-Off-The-Road Accident, New Orleans, Louisiana. May 9, 1999. National Transportation Safety Board, 490 L. Enfant Plaza, S.W. Washington D.C. NTSB/HAR-01/01 PB2001-916201. Adopted August 28, 2001 TWENTY-FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT FOR THE PARISH OF JEFFERSON STATE OF LOUISIANA No. 548-322 c/w All Cases Division, RON KELLER, ET AL, Plaintiffs, vs. DR. SHAUNDA JONES, ET AL, Defendants

[3] Special Investigation Report Selective Issues in School Bus Transportation Safety: Crashes in Baltimore, Maryland, and Chattanooga, Tennessee NTSB/SIR-18/02 PB2018-100932 Notation 57905 Adopted May 22, 2018; case citation, ALPHA DIALLO et al AFFORDABLE TRANSPORTATION, LLC, et al., IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF MARYLAND, No: 24-C-17-005079 MT.

See also: USA Today news story

[4] Lindsay, et al v. Celadon, et al., District Court of Dallas DC-10-08146-G, 134 Judicial District

[5] Trucking Collision Lawsuit Results in $3.25M Settlement in Texas Sleep Apnea Related Death Case

[6] Community Hospitals of Indiana, Inc., Appellant-Defendant v Aspen Insurance UK Limited and Hiscox, LTD, Appellees-Plaintiffs, October 19, 2018, Court of Appeals Case No. 18A-PL-69, Appeal from the Marion Superior Court, Trial Court Cause No. 49D14-1204-PL-16336