Regulators hold commercial truck driver to health and safety standards to protect them and everyone else on the road. Despite that, too many active truck drivers have major medical conditions that could impair their ability to operate their trucks. If one of them causes a major accident and hurts you due to his ailment, it's important for you and your attorney to learn as much as you can about his medical history. But how exactly could the truck driver's medical records help your truck accident case?

Answer: A driver's medical history is important to your accident case because it has the ability to show whether or not it was foreseeable to the driver's employer that a medical condition could have led to an accident.

In this article, we'll talk about why it's important to investigate the driver's medical records, what other sources of evidence might help build a case, and why all this matters to truck accident victims.

Why Should I Get the Medical Records for My Case?

The law typically doesn't blame people for incidents no reasonable person could have seen coming. That includes sudden medical emergencies—serious but unforeseeable moments where a driver is robbed of control by a medical episode. For example, consider a brain aneurysm: Most happen unpredictably, yet their effects can be immediate and devastating, or even fatal. If a trucker in otherwise good health is afflicted by one while driving, virtually no jury would consider the resulting accident a matter of negligence.

The big problem is that "sudden medical emergency" becomes the rallying cry for the defense any time a medical issue is thought to be involved. Heart attacks, seizures, fainting spells—all are portrayed by the defense as blue-sky events with no warning signs, meaning the driver and by extension his employer aren't responsible for any accidents or injuries that followed. However, most serious medical conditions like those have many precursors and signs before they become serious enough to be disabling. It's not enough just to say that, though—the victim's attorney must prove that the truck driver and his employer were negligent by failing to foresee or address the issue.

How Do I Prove the Driver Had a Medical Episode?

To prove that a truck driver had a disabling medical incident before a truck accident, and that negligence occurred by not foreseeing and addressing the underlying condition, an attorney needs to gather and present clear evidence that establishes both the occurrence of the event and its causal link to the crash. Here’s how they might do that:

Crash Scene Evidence

Physical evidence from the scene of the accident can help tell a clear story of exactly how it happened, including whether a sudden medical emergency was a partial or whole cause. During the investigation, accident reconstruction experts may look for certain signs like:

• No braking or swerving before impact
• Dash- or cab-cam footage showing the driver slumping or unresponsive
• Eyewitness accounts, e.g. driver seen convulsing or unconscious
• Black box data, e.g. sudden acceleration, no steering input

These and other signs tell a story of a truck driver incapable of maintaining control just before a wreck. None of them are exclusively signs that a medical episode was involved, though, so an attorney will rely on help from experts to confirm it.

Expert Medical Testimony

For all their schooling, attorneys are only equipped to understand and explain the law. For things like medical diagnoses or forensic crash reconstruction, they get help from leading experts in those fields.

Example: If an attorney thinks a truck driver had a heart attack before a major accident, they might ask an accident reconstructionist to find the facts of the wreck (see "Crash Scene Evidence" above) and a cardiologist to confirm those facts are consistent with a loss of consciousness from a cardiac event.

Even if experts help validate a medical episode as a factor, there is still the likely "sudden medical emergency" argument to overcome. To help do so, attorneys gather supporting documentation of the driver's health history.

Get Medical Records

If a trucker is suspected of having a medical problem serious enough to interrupt their driving, there's a good chance that problem is mentioned in their prior doctor or hospital visits. An experienced attorney will round up documentation of those, including:

• DOT medical examination reports;
• Medical certifications and waivers;
• Hospital and physician records; and
• Pharmacy records.

Information from those sources could show one or more serious health conditions that might disable a truck driver on the road. But if so, then how was the trucker cleared to drive? The answer may lie in his mandatory physical exams.

Check the DOT Medical Certificate

Every commercial truck driver needs a certificate showing a certified physician found them fit to operate a commercial vehicle. This "medical card" is mandatory, and the information it contains may help an attorney verify whether or not the trucker belonged on the road. The lawyer will verify whether the card was current and valid, if the physician performed all the needed tests (a few unethical examiners have allegedly just tested the contents of the driver's wallet before passing them), and if there was any fraud or misrepresentation on the driver's medical documentation.

If the exam was improper or the driver lied about a condition, that can be important when alleging negligence. It's also a concern, however, whether their employer lied about their condition.

Employment & Safety Record Review

When investigating a truck accident on behalf of their clients, attorneys often look into what the trucking company's internal documents say about a driver—including his health. Most companies keep clear and accurate records, but we've encountered some bad apples over the years who were so desperate to "get the load on the road" that they either failed to vet new driver applicants or simply ignored the red flags they found.

The investigation looks into whether the company knew (or should have known) about any major medical problems, if they failed to monitor the driver's physical results, and if they were negligent by hiring him in the first place, among other things. Finding out the company just hired anyone with a pulse, regardless of the hazards, helps build a strong argument for negligence—as does learning the company has made similar mistakes before.

FMCSA & CDL Compliance Records

Truck drivers aren't always the only ones with a stain or two on their records. Little as we like saying it, more than a few trucking companies have their own share of noncompliance with government standards—and the more they do it, the easier it is to justify doing it again. Sometimes a company who negligently clears a dangerous driver for duty has done so several times before, violating FMCSA standards every time. If attorney investigation finds a pattern of such negligence, that helps strengthen the negligence argument on the accident victim's behalf.

We understand if all that sounds quite a stack of papers to assemble, and that's because it is. As any attorney worth their salt will tell you, though, there's no such thing as "too much evidence." Defendants who admit fault without a fight are rare, and even more so when they're companies with million-dollar insurance policies at stake. Those same corporate defendants won't hand over so much as a Post-It Note without a subpoena, either, so anyone hoping to see records that are arguably "company property" will need the power of the courts to get them.

Health Problems Are Not a Smoking Gun

After explaining all the ways an investigator can find evidence that a truck driver was in bad health, we want to be clear that catching an unwell trucker isn't an automatic win. If the driver is actively trying to cure or mitigate some conditions, they may have conditional permission to keep operating their truck.

Take diabetes as an example: Left untreated, it's a serious condition that could render a truck driver unconscious before a crash. Trucking companies know that, and any ethical firm would disqualify a driver who doesn't deal with his symptoms. However, if a treatment regimen, a modified schedule, and/or regular monitoring are put in place to manage those symptoms, then he may get provisional approval to drive. Moreover, proof of an active mitigation plan could greatly reduce the company's liability even if there's an accident.

We don't say that to give hope of an "out" to negligent truck drivers and companies. We're only saying that finding evidence of a disabling condition isn't an immediate "gotcha" that ends a case then and there. Experienced attorneys know it's only a part of the case as a whole, which must be carefully constructed and submitted according to the rules of the court. Truthfully, that can quickly get overwhelming for the average accident victim who's just trying to get back on their feet.

Grossman Law Can Help

Any truck accident victim seeking compensation from a trucker and his employer must successfully show that either or both were negligent. In cases with medical emergencies, part of that negligence is failing to foresee and act upon the risk of an episode at the wheel. Proving it was foreseeable is no small feat, but if successful that's often a strong contributor to a winning case. The process to investigate, obtain, and interpret all the needed evidence can be time-consuming and resource-heavy, though, and accident victims often find themselves at a loss about how to begin.

The Texas truck accident attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have decades of experience helping the victims of commercial vehicle accidents, including those involving medical episodes, all over the United States. If you were hurt or lost a loved one in an accident with a commercial vehicle, contact Grossman Law Offices today for a free and confidential consultation.