November 1, 2007 9:52 AM Posted By Ken Shigley Comments / Questions (3)

Truck drivers' drug tests: undercover investigators reveal how easy it is to cheat on truckers' drug tests

Undercover investigators for the Government Accountint Office have found that it is surprisingly easy to cheat on random drug tests designed to catch truck drivers who use drugs.  Using bogus truck driver’s licenses to gain access to 24 drug-testing sites, the investigators  found that 75 percent “failed to restrict access to  items that could be used to adulterate or dilute the [urine] specimen, meaning that running water, soap, or air freshener was available in the bathroom during the test.”
While the FMCSA estimates that fewer than 2 percent of truck drivers test positive each year for controlled substances,  when Oregon conducted its own tests, 9 percent of truck drivers tested positive.
Dozens of products on the Web are marketed to truckers as fail-safe ways to defeat the mandatory drug tests. The GAO team  bought drug-masking products over the Web and was able to mix them with real specimens at the drug-testing sites “without being caught by site collectors,” the agency said in a report scheduled to be made public Thursday.
(Thanks to alert reader David Warren in Florida for calling my attention to this article.)

The Shigley Law Firm  represents plaintiffs in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases statewide in Georgia, and in other states subject to the multijurisdictional practice and pro hac vice rules in each state. Ken Shigley was designated as a "SuperLawyer" in Atlanta Magazine and one of the "Legal Elite" in Georgia Trend Magazine. He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, Chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Liability Institute and former chair of the Georgia Insurance Law Institute. He particularly focuses on cases arising from truck wrecks and accidents.

Written By:Cricket On November 8, 2007 3:10 PM

And there are days people doesn't want to get out of bed and face the world. After reading this, I can't say that I blame them. No wonder 'enforcement' doesn't work. Can you imagine, a trucking company that gets false negatives back from a drug company, only to find that their drivers come up hot on a urine test later are going to be in
for a world of hurt? Which would have more credibility? The one taken at a center, or the one where the trooper or doctor is right there in the room and they can't fake it?

Scary stuff.

Written By:Garth Sullivan On November 8, 2007 7:37 PM

I thought you may be interested in a new blog I moderate wherein a panel of doctors and other healthcare professionals opine on attorney submitted hypos for free.

It's called mdjdphd.blogspot.com

Written By:Lisa Siegel On November 13, 2007 12:10 PM

Fascinating stuff about driving while impaired. Have you given any thought to truck drivers who drive while sleeping? I did a bit of research on this recently and it is also a strange phenomenon in the area of trucking litigation.

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