Ambulance Endorsement - California

[CAemt]

Does anyone know if it's possible to obtain a ambulance edorsement if you have monocular vision? I live in California. I wonder what my chance are of obtaining a waiver?

[Kiwiology]

Does anyone know if it's possible to obtain a ambulance edorsement if you have monocular vision? I live in California. I wonder what my chance are of obtaining a waiver?

Probably pretty good, provided your other eye gets 20/40 or better with or w/o correction.

Unlike your California Class C license, the DMV chooses to apply the commercial (CDL) medical standards to the ambulance endorsment. These are set by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration which is a sub-entity of the Department of Transportation. Interstingly they are uniform across the country because the fifty states wanted consistency in interstate commercial drivers.

That said, your may have your CDL medical waived and approved for "intrastate commerce only" meaning you can't go to Oregon or Nevada in your ambo but who wants to go to Oregon, yuck, at least Nevada has fun ways to loose money!

I can't figure out if you need to apply for the FMCSA or to the DMV for an exemption; I think you need to apply to the FMCSA (see here: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/documents/safetyprograms/Vision/vision-exemption-package.pdf) but it's like following Alice down the rabbit hole.

Best to call the Governator and ask him, no wait, don't call the Governator, just call the DMV and ask them.

How do I know all this? That's for me to know

Edited January 11, 2010 by kiwimedic