Truckers Warned of Safety Risks of Anti-Smoking Drug Chantix

As a trucking accident trial attorney in Georgia, I’ve become acutely aware of how often a truck driver’s medical condition and even perfectly legal prescription medications can impact safety.

Recently the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a warning on the anti-smoking drug Chantix, advising medical examiners “to not qualify anyone currently using this medication for commercial motor vehicle licenses.” Manufactured by Pfizer, Inc., Chantix, ahs seizures, dizziness, heart irregularity, diabetes and more than 100 accidents. The U.S. Department of Transportation warned all of its agencies almost immediately after seeing the report which reported that Chantix was linked to 988 serious events in the last quarter of 2007. This was reported in many places in the media, including this article by Alicia Mundy and Avery Johnson of the Wall Street Journal.

Ken Shigley has served as chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Litigation Institute, co-sponsored by the Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina Trial Lawyers Associations. He is on the National Advisory Board for the Association of Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America, and is actively involved in the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice. A Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, he is also a Master of the Lamar Inn of Court at Emory Law School, a faculty member for ten years at the Emory University Law School Trial Techniques Program, and was recently elected Secretary of the 39,000 member State Bar of Georgia.