WASHINGTON — Trucking rulemaklers should implement a program to identify commercial drivers at high risk for obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, says the National Transportation Safety Board.

In a letter to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the NTSB also recommended that drivers be required to provide evidence that they’ve been evaluated for OSA and treated if need be.

As well, FMCSA should distribute guidance to commercial drivers, employers and physicians on identifying and treating OSA.

The NTSB cited several transportation crashes involving sleep apnea, including a tractor-trailer driver who collided with a Tennessee Highway Patrol vehicle, killing the state trooper inside.

The truck then went across the median and crashed into Chevrolet Blazer, injuring the driver. The driver of the truck had unreported sleep apnea.

The NTSB also noted studies on sleep apnea, including one that found that the prevalence of sleep apnea was more than 50 percent in patients with an average body mass index of 40.0.

Another study found that 96 percent of male patients with resistant hypertension had unsuspected OSA. A 2002 review of the epidemiology of OSA estimated that roughly 7 percent of adults have at least moderate OSA.

The Owner-Operators Independent Drivers Association has been long opposed a "blanket, one-size-fits-all" approach to pre-diagnosing OSA in truck drivers.

The group claims that apnea has for the most part only anecdotally been linked to some crashes.

"Our position always has been and always will be that we are concerned about the health of our drivers," said Tom Weakley, director of operations for the OOIDA Foundation. "Certainly, if a driver has any kind of illness or problems that would interfere with their driving, then they need to be checked out and get treated. However, in this particular instance, there still has been no direct causal relationship shown between sleep apnea and the accident."