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Panel Urges Health Rules for Bus Drivers

``The National Transportation Safety Board today attributed the crash, which was on Mother's Day in 1999, to the driver's poor health and the failure of the doctors who had examined him to try to take him off the road.

``The driver, Frank Bedell, died of a heart attack three months later. He had been cleared to drive despite suffering from heart disease and kidney failure.

``He tested positive for marijuana after the crash and had twice been fired from other bus companies for that reason. His last employer did not know he had failed earlier drug tests.

`` The safety board recommended tighter standards for medical examinations that bus and truck drivers must pass every two years and for procedures to allow a prospective employer to find out whether an applicant has a drug problem.

``The recommendations are part of the final report on the crash of the chartered bus, which ran off an Interstate highway and crashed through a guardrail and down an embankment. Twenty-two members of a retirees' gambling club heading to a Gulf Coast casino died.

``…The board also renewed its suggestion for bus design standards that would more effectively protect passengers in crashes. Improving bus safety has been one of the highest priorities among the board's recommended improvements…"

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