Kentucky Injury Law News
Kentucky motorists might be interested in learning that multiple large trucking carriers have petitioned the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to allow them to perform hair tests to check for drug use in truck drivers. Currently, the federal government requires urine testing.
The trucking carriers are some of the largest in the industry and include Werner, Maverick Transportation, Schneider, J.B. Hunt, Dupree Logistics and Knight. They are arguing that hair testing is much more reliable than urine testing. Currently, the carriers use hair tests to test their drivers, but they also have to conduct urine testing in addition in order to comply with federal regulations. The companies are arguing that doing so is unnecessarily expensive.
The carriers who have petitioned the FMCSA along with a few additional companies make up the Trucking Alliance, which was formed in 2010. The primary goal of the alliance is to convince the FMCSA to reform its protocols for drug testing. The FAST Act of 2015 provided that the FMCSA could accept hair tests after the Department of Health and Human Services promulgated regulations for doing so. The Department of Health and Human Services still has not issued any rules although it was required to do so by Dec. 5, 2016.
Drug testing is performed in order to help prevent truck accidents that are caused by impaired drivers. A truck driver who is under the influence of drugs when behind the wheel poses a great risk to others on the road. People who are severely injured in trucking accidents that are caused by drivers who are driving under the influence might want to consider filing personal injury lawsuits. A personal injury lawyer who is experienced with representing people who are injured in truck accidents might be able to secure a higher compensation amount than the injured person might otherwise receive.