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Sunday, January 16, 2000
By Steve Twedt, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Truck and bus drivers worried that health problems could disqualify them from driving for a living can be heartened by Tom Ries' experience: Getting around those pesky medical requirements can be easier than parallel parking.
Ries, 49, a truck driver based in Murrysville, had the required every-other-year U.S. Department of Transportation-mandated physicals for 20 years before an examiner noticed:
Ries has an artificial left leg, starting a few inches below the knee.
How could more than a half-dozen doctors miss that?
"I used to scout [the doctors] out," Ries said recently. "I'd ask other guys: What goes on at the physical? Are they easy? Are they fast? I would do lots of research."
Usually, Ries said, he'd spend more time in the waiting room than the examining room.
The Department of Transportation physicals are supposed to ensure that drivers are healthy enough to drive tour buses, 18-wheelers and other commercial rigs. The regulations specify certain minimum standards for hearing, vision and other conditions.
An artificial arm or leg will disqualify a driver, but a driver can apply for a waiver. That would mean closer monitoring and more frequent recertification and, Ries said, "I didn't want to go through the aggravation."
Other drivers not wanting the aggravation have two big advantages.
For starters, the physicals can be done by any doctor, nurse practitioner, chiropractor or physician assistant approved by the state, regardless of whether they're well versed in commercial driver requirements. They're usually not, unless the examiner is doing more than a few drivers' physicals each year and actively keeping up with changes in the guidelines.
Second, even if the driver fails the medical exam, the information rarely goes beyond his employer, if that far. That means a driver can simply shop for an examiner who will pass him, then apply for a driver's job somewhere else. Also, Ries conceded, "There was probably a couple of times, in the early days, we just made up a doctor and signed it."
Ries said the doctors who checked him would follow the standard Department of Transportation form, checking his blood pressure, his vision and his hearing. Usually they would make him walk some stairs or run in place to check his heart rate.
They never asked him if he had any missing limbs, though. And when it came time for the routine hernia check, Ries dropped his pants only to mid-thigh.
For 20 years, he came away with a signed medical card.
"I made sure I was walking at my best," he said. "I took my time. I tried to walk with a nice bounce."
Ries lost the lower part of his left leg in 1968, when he was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle. He was in traction for three months and a body cast for nine more. He continued to work on cars and, for a while, he managed a gas station.
His 23-year trucking career began casually, when someone needed help moving carnival equipment one weekend. Eventually, he decided to buy a truck to do some weekend work, and that evolved into full-time hauling of steel, light machinery and other commodities throughout the region.
The commercial driver's license must be renewed every four years, but drivers must renew their medical cards every two years. Through all those physicals, Ries conceded that he worried about getting caught. "I usually had a ball of sweat on my forehead."
There were a couple of close calls.
Once, the examiner tapped Ries' right knee to check his reflexes -- but didn't check his left leg.
Another time, Ries inadvertently wore the waist strap that works like a garter belt to keep his prosthesis in place. "When the doctor saw it, he told me, 'I don't know why you're wearing this, but it's bad for your back.' " That was the end of it.
In 1995, Ries went to a New Derry doctor who asked him to pull his pants down past his knee for the hernia check.
"There it was," Ries said. "She said, 'Where's your medical waiver?'
"I said, 'What?' "
Because of his good driving record, and a sympathetic department official, Ries lost only a few weeks of work while going through the nine-month waiver application process. He still has to be seen by an orthopedic surgeon and a physiatrist every two years to keep his waiver valid, in addition to seeing another doctor for his medical card.
"It's a lot of hassle and a lot of headache," Ries said.
But he doesn't sweat the physicals anymore.
Tom Ries scouted different examiners in hopes of finding one who might not notice his artificial leg. It went undetected by doctors for over 20 years. (Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette) 
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