Don’t Get Grounded: Med Form Accuracy Matters

By Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg

“Always tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and amaze your friends.” This almost direct quote from Mark Twain is essential advice for pilots who are coming up for a medical certificate renewal, initial application, or going for BasicMed.

The online medical form 8500.8, as well as BasicMed form 8700-2, is perilous for the careless and those inclined to “stretch” the truth. MedExpress has lots of fine print, but it’s critical that pilots read and understand what it says, particularly question 18v, which asks “Have you EVER in your LIFE . . .,” and proceeds to list every possible way a driver could have encountered law enforcement relative to impaired driving, including drunk driving, being arrested without conviction, paying a fine, receiving suspension or administrative action, attending a rehab program or an education program—anything.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has a special investigation division in Oklahoma City whose sole function is to cross check medical applications with the National Driver Register (NDR). They’re very good at ferreting out any indiscretion, and even a slight fabrication can cost you every certificate you have. When you submit the paperwork, either for a medical certificate or BasicMed, you give the FAA permission to look you up in the NDR.

Let’s look at an example. A pilot provides an incorrect answer on the form, accidentally or not, then attests that everything on the form is true. A medical certificate is issued or, in the case of basic medical, the doctor maintains a record and one is provided to the pilot. Several months later, the Oklahoma City team checks the NDR, finds a record relating to the pilot, and sends a letter asking the pilot for information. A letter of revocation may follow, which the pilot may then appeal to an NTSB administrative law judge; however, as codified in Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 67.403(c), inaccuracies on an airman medical application form are grounds for possible revocation of any and all FAA certificates, including those for which no medical is required (for example, ground instructor, A & P, AI, etc.). NTSB is required to follow both law and precedent so FAA’s revocation may not be easy to overturn unless there has been an error.

Now, let’s rewind to when the pilot is initially filling out the form. Say the pilot truthfully reports that he had an alcohol- or drug-related driving event, whether 20 years ago or last month. The FAA will ask some additional questions and will likely require additional documentation. Depending on the circumstances, such as length of time since the event, number of events, and level of impairment, the incident may not amount to much. If it’s a recent event, chances are good that there will be some additional hoops to go through and some delay in getting back in the air, but it’s unlikely that there will be a revocation action. Yes, it will take some time and money to work through the process, but nothing like what happens if a pilot tries to sneak through without reporting the event. It’s imperative to remember, also, that once you have reported an incident, you must report it on every subsequent medical application.

If an impairment incident occurs between medical exams, you should report it immediately. Title 49 CFR 61.15 states that you have 60 days after a law enforcement encounter involving alcohol or drugs to self-report to the FAA. Failure to make that report can result in suspension of your medical certificate.

For aviation medical examiners and personal physicians: please personally coach your applicants very carefully on these points. A false answer on the medical application could ground them permanently, while a truthful answer will likely result in some temporary delay before medical certification.

It’s in everyone’s interest to follow these rules to protect the public and to keep aviation out of the court of public opinion. The fine print on your medical forms matters! Don’t let a careless mistake—or a purposeful lie—keep you grounded.

Motorcycle Awareness Month: A Crash Investigator’s Perspective

By Michael Fox

As an NTSB highway safety investigator, I’ve seen far too many fatal motor vehicle crashes. No matter how many times I’ve been deployed to investigate these crashes, each time I’m moved by what I encounter.

When I arrive on the scene and see the devastation left behind—crunched, twisted metal that once resembled vehicles—I am immediately flooded with thoughts of the people involved. Maybe she was a wife and a mother; he might have been a husband and father; they were someone’s children. Was this person the family breadwinner or caregiver? Someone’s soul mate? A doctor, a teacher, a preacher, a business owner, a police officer, an athlete, a student, a stay-at-home parent?

The reality that the people involved in these crashes are not coming home weighs heavy on me, both while at the scene and later, as I reflect on what I saw at the scene. But I’m not the only one affected. These tragedies have a tremendous effect on the families involved, as well as on their communities. In a single moment, lives are changed forever.

And, yet, in almost every case, the accident was preventable.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data showed that more than 35,000 people were killed in traffic crashes in 2015—a 7 percent rise over the previous year. And nearly 5,000 of those killed were motorcycle riders or their passengers. That equates to about 14 people each day! That’s an unacceptable number. Motorcycles represent just 3 percent of registered vehicles, yet are overrepresented in our crash statistics.

The fact is that riding a motorcycle is very dangerous—it’s 27 times more dangerous than driving a car. That doesn’t mean motorcycle riding is a bad thing, but the dangers associated with riding are something we must acknowledge and address.

As the weather gets warmer and riders become anxious to enjoy it, more and more motorcyclists will emerge on our roadways, and I’ll likely be among them. I’ve been riding motorcycles for more than 30 years, beginning with a Honda 350 when I was in the Army stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. For a while, my motorcycle was my only source of transportation. I also rode a motorcycle while I was stationed in Germany. When I came back stateside and left the Army, I bought a Kawasaki 454 LTD, which I rode for about 5 years before I transitioned to a Honda Shadow 1100 when I turned 40 years old. From there, I moved to the Suzuki 1500 Boulevard that I ride today.

I love riding, and I appreciate these two-wheeled recreational vehicles. But when I get on my motorcycle, I remind myself that, because of its open, exposed design, I’m left vulnerable. Riding a motorcycle is dangerous and I must always be extremely cautious. With more than 30 years of riding experience and numerous years as an investigator, I have learned to be a defensive driver and take appropriate precautions.

As we close out Motorcycle Awareness Month, if you’re a rider, I encourage you to do what I do—not just this month, but every day you ride:

• Ride sober.
• Wear safety gear—helmet, gloves, leather protective jacket, boots, and hi-visibility vest.
• Watch for road hazards and always leave a cushion around yourself.
• Avoid bad weather.
• Conduct a pre-trip inspection, looking over the bike before you ride and making sure it’s in sound mechanical order.

I hope that, as a society and a nation, we can work together to eliminate the loss of life we are seeing on our highways in all vehicle types. If you operate a car, bus, or truck, please watch out for motorcycles. If you ride a motorcycle, consider my tips above and put safety first. Recognize that riding a motorcycle is more dangerous than riding in a car, and it’s critical to take every precaution while riding.

Enjoy the freedom of riding, but please, be safe out there!

 

To read some of the motorcycle safety recommendations the NTSB has issued, visit our website.

Also, see the latest NHTSA 2015 Motorcycles Traffic Safety Fact Sheet.

Michael Fox is an investigator in the NTSB Office of Highway Safety.

Today’s Actions, Tomorrow’s Consequences

By Nicholas Worrell

In the past 2 months, several occasions have raised awareness about the dangers we face in highway safety:

• National Distracted Driving Awareness Month
• Public Health Awareness Week
• Impaired Driving Awareness Month
• Click It or Ticket National Enforcement Mobilization
• Global Youth Traffic Safety Month
• Bicycle Safety Month
• Global Road Safety Week
• Motorcycle Awareness Month

Naturally, the NTSB has played a role in many of these initiatives in support of our highway safety recommendations; but it is often the work of advocates and brave legislators around the country that move states toward action on our recommendations.

Unfortunately, despite these national and global initiatives, the numbers are trending in the wrong direction. After years of decline and plateau, the number of traffic deaths per year spiked in 2015 and 2016. When the 2016 numbers are tallied, it’s reasonable to assume that they will be the highest in a decade.

The cultural shift we need to stop this trend will take greater education, legislative, and enforcement efforts. In our April 26 roundtable, “Act 2 End Deadly Distractions,” we brought together advocacy groups, insurance companies, survivor advocates, and law enforcement representatives to discuss the problem and identify specific solutions. Survivor advocates went away with new tools and contacts, as well as with information on how to take more effective action to move the public, state and local governments, employers, and law enforcement. The assembled advocacy groups announced an alliance, the National Alliance for Distraction Free Driving.

NTSB Highway Investigator Kenny Bragg talks with students at the Prince George’s County (MD) Global Youth Traffic Safety Month event

Earlier this month, the NTSB’s Advocacy Division collaborated with Prince George’s County (MD) Police Department, the National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS), and Freedom High School in Virginia to educate youth about driving hazards. Together, we kicked off our Global Youth Traffic Safety Month social media campaign, #1goodchoice, to promote teen driver safety.

Last week, I represented the NTSB at the International Road Federation’s 6^th Caribbean Regional Congress. At the meeting, I emphasized the “service” part of civil service and shared what NTSB Advocacy has learned in promoting action for safer driving and safer roads.

Nicholas Worrell talks with attendees at the International Road Foundation’s 6th Caribbean Regional Conference

Even as safety features become more and more common, our driving behavior has not become safer. We must change behavior to make a real difference, and that change in behavior starts with ourselves. The first step to making this change is realizing that those who die in highway crashes are not some “other people”—they’re somebody’s loved ones. They were somebody, themselves. They could have been us. You can take action to increase awareness—your own as well as that of those around you. Turn away from messages about how much we can drink before driving, for example, and think instead about separating the two behaviors. Realize that, whether you’re speeding to make a red light or glancing at your phone while driving, it can wait. Get enough sleep before driving. Wear a helmet when you’re on a motorcycle. Be alert to pedestrians and bicycles, and be alert as a pedestrian and a bicyclist. Reach out to people you know, either through social and traditional media or by simply having a face-to-face conversation with your loved ones and friends about the behaviors they need to change when they’re on the road.

Act to end distractions by joining the conversation at #Act2EndDD. You can talk about your one good choice (#1goodchoice). If you’re a survivor advocate, you can get in touch with the National Alliance for Distraction Free Driving for tools and ideas on how to put an end to distracted driving.

If each of us changes our own behavior, we will create a safer world. We must all take responsibility and act to keep drivers, passengers, pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists alive.

Carrollton, Kentucky, 29 Years Later: So Much Work Still To Do

By Dr. Robert Molloy

On the night of May 14, 1988, in Carrollton, Kentucky, 24 children and 3 adults were killed and 34 others were injured when a drunk driver, driving his pickup truck in the wrong direction on Interstate 71, struck their church activity bus head-on. The driver, whose blood alcohol concentration was three times today’s legal limit, survived, sustaining minor injuries.

In the nearly 3 decades since the Carrollton crash, the number of people killed in alcohol‑involved crashes has decreased. Smart, committed people have worked tirelessly for stronger penalties, high-visibility enforcement, advanced collision-avoidance technology, and education campaigns aimed at deterring alcohol-impaired driving. But more than 10,000 people still die every year because someone who has been drinking gets behind the wheel. The results of those drivers’ choices are funerals, hospital stays, surgeries, medical bills, and lost livelihoods, all of which are completely preventable. As we approach the 29th anniversary of the 27 deaths in Carrollton, 27 more people will die today, because of alcohol-impaired drivers.

On the 25th anniversary of the Carrollton crash in 2013, we issued a safety report, Reaching Zero: Actions to Eliminate Alcohol-Impaired Driving. We called on the states to take bold actions to address this problem, making safety recommendations in this report that, if implemented, would prevent alcohol-impaired driving. We recommended reducing the per se blood alcohol concentration limit for all drivers; conducting high-visibility enforcement of impaired driving laws and incorporating passive alcohol-sensing technology into enforcement efforts; expanding the use of in-vehicle devices to prevent operation by an impaired driver; and using driving while intoxicated (DWI) courts and other programs to reduce recidivism by repeat DWI offenders. Implementing any of these recommendations would reduce impaired-driving fatalities, and if any one of them can keep one impaired driver from taking another life, we believe the effort to enact them is worth it. If these recommendations had been in place in 1988, those 27 bus occupants might be living full lives today, and 24 families may not have experienced unspeakable sadness.

We make bold recommendations because the alternative—accepting the preventable 10,000 deaths each year on America’s roads—is intolerable. States that implement these recommendations will make it more difficult for people to choose to drink and drive, and that’s the action we need to truly “reach zero.”

Dr. Robert Molloy is the Director of the NTSB Office of Highway Safety.

#SlowDown for Global Road Safety Week

 By Member Bella Dinh-Zarr, PhD, MPH

Today is the first day of the United Nation’s Global Road Safety Week. The week was started as part of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020, and now builds momentum to achieve the worldwide UN Sustainable Development Goal of reducing by half the number of deaths and injuries on the roads by 2020. This year, the theme is #SlowDown, and the safety focus is on speed management.

At the NTSB, we investigate some of the worst motor vehicle crashes each year, and speed has been a factor in many of our investigations. We recognize that speed often contributes to the severity of a crash, and we are addressing this safety issue through our recommendations to improve work zone safety, to require and improve collision avoidance systems, to develop V2V technologies and require installation in all vehicles, and to improve speed-limiting technology for heavy vehicles. In fact, to highlight the importance of speed on safety, the four Board Members of our independent agency approved a special study on speeding, which we anticipate releasing later this year.

Our federal colleagues at the CDC Injury Center remind us that speeding is a major risk factor for crash deaths, and that almost 1 in 3 deaths on our roads involve speeding. NHTSA data show that speeding-related deaths increased by 3% from 9,283 in 2014 to 9,557 in 2015; speed is clearly a continuing safety issue.

We probably all need to #SlowDown a little in our hectic lives, both on and off the road. Perhaps like many of you, I race around every day juggling work and family life, and I rarely stop to enjoy things as much as I should. When I was younger, unlike the wise FCCLA youth whom I met recently, I probably raced around a little too much on the roads in Texas. One of my older brothers was my willing partner then, but now, we both know that our speeding could have had devastating consequences. That brother grew up to be a surgeon who spends many hours working in emergency departments and operating rooms, so, like me, he also sees the tragic consequences of speeding. Meeting the smart and capable youth from the FCCLA, some of whom have conducted Teen Road Safety Assessments (#TeenRSA) around their schools, reminded me that we all need to remember to lower our speeds, especially around schools, to protect the most vulnerable and promising members of our society. Lower speeds really can save lives. A child hit by a car going 50 mph almost certainly will die, but perhaps a child hit by a car at 20 mph can survive. At slower speeds, a car could avoid hitting a person (or another car) altogether. Let’s #SlowDown this week, and every week, for our children and our communities.