Do Commercial Truck Drivers Have Special Rules For Drug and Alcohol Use? The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) sets for rules and regulations for commercial truck drivers and trucking companies to protect the public because we must share the road with these extremely large and dangerous vehicles. Accidents involving commercial trucks result in the death or injury of the occupants of the other vehicles in over 70 percent of truck accidents. Due to the weight and size of a commercial truck, the injuries in a truck accident are usually catastrophic. Therefore, the FMCSA sets forth drug and alcohol rules and regulations such as requiring a drug test that covers a minimum of five different substances: • Marijuana • Cocaine • Opiates — opium and codeine derivatives • Amphetamines and …show more content…
Employers are required to test a minimum of 50 percent of its drivers for controlled substances and 10 percent of its drivers for alcohol on an annual basis. • Drivers must agree to drug and/or alcohol testing if the employer has a responsible suspicion that the driver violated trucking regulation related to the use of drugs or alcohol. • Commercial truck drivers who are involved in a truck accident that results in the death of another person or results in a traffic citation being issued must submit to alcohol and drug testing. An alcohol drug test must be given to the truck driver within eight hours of the truck accident. A drug test must be given to the truck driver within 32 hours of the truck accident. • Submit to a return-to-work drug and alcohol test after a violation of trucking regulations. This also includes follow-up tests with a minimum of six tests within the following 12 months. • Face immediate suspension from driving a truck if a blood alcohol test results in a .04 BAC. If the BAC is between .02 and .039, the truck driver is suspended until the next regularly scheduled alcohol
Therefore, the NTSB put out a recommendation last May that the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) level for drivers should be lowered from the current level of.08% to.05%. But for several reasons, we shouldn’t lower the criterion on blood alcohol content. Lowering the criterion on blood alcohol content would make a lot of responsible social drinkers become criminals. A 170 pound man could get to.05 by drinking three beers in an hour, and a 137 pound woman by drinking just two, which means that the man could be legally impaired if he had three drinks, but the woman could earn a set of handcuffs with only two drinks. According to “Lower the BAC level for DWI to.05%,” Jazz Shaw makes a similar point.
The main reasons being: Safety Vehicle safety depends on many factors. These include
One of the themes that has been addressed by writers since the beginning of civilization is the issue of the split between living in society and living by oneself. We see this in that peculiarly American genre of books known as "road books", in which the protagonist embarks upon a long journey or period of time away from society in order to "find themselves." One of the quintessential examples of this type of book is Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, technically a "river book" rather than a "road book". In it, as in many "road books" before and since, spending a long period of time away from society allows the protagonist to see the difference between the rules of mainstream society and the freedom of the wilderness. Through his journey, Twain illustrates the futility of living within society as contrasted to the freedom of being an outcast.
...e that prevents drunk driving offenders from operating motor vehicles while intoxicated by requiring a breath test from the driver before the vehicle will start.
The facts are plain and simple, that alcohol and driving do not mix. About three in every ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol related crash at some time in their lives. Every single injury and death caused by drunk driving is totally preventable. To curb this national travesty, concerned Americans need to examine the problems, the effects, and the solutions to drunk driving. First of all, America has had a problem with drunk driving since Ford perfected the assembly line. Alcoholism is a problem in and of itself, but combined with driving can have a wide range of effects. The consequences of this reckless behavior can include a first time DUI or licenses suspension; a small fender bender, or worst of all a deadly crash. Most drivers that have only one or two drinks feel fine, and assume they are in control, which is irresponsible and dangerous. Alcohol is a depressant that slows down the body's ability to react and impairs judgment. To drive well, you need to be able to have a quick reaction time to avoid accidents. Unfortunately, people continue to drink and drive. However,...
The nursing profession is guided by the principal of nonmaleficence, or “Do no harm”. Nurses are responsible for maintaining and optimizing a patient’s quality of life. When nurses fail to care for themselves, they also put their patients at risk. The patient has a reasonable expectation to receive safe and competent care. The influence of drugs and alcohol greatly deteriorate the judgment and skills of any good nurse. Increased patient workload, long hours, personal stress, and sleep deprivation put many nurses in a position to self-medicate. It is my position that high-risk specialty employees undergo drug testing in order to be held accountable and help keep their patients and themselves safe from harm.
Drunk Driving is defined as: Operating a motor vehicle while one 's blood alcohol content is above the legal limit set by statute, which supposedly is the level at which a person cannot drive safely. State statutes define the legal limit to be between .08 and .10 depending on what state you’re in. Every 51 minutes in America, someone is killed in a drunk driving crash(MADD). That equates to 27 people every day. Which comes to a total of at least 9,855 deaths in a year. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 32% of fatal car crashes involve an intoxicated driver or pedestrian (MADD). As of right now, in society the total number of drunk driving accidents is slowly but surely increasing and if nothing is done about it, it’ll result in a tragic amount of deaths and injuries. Drunk drivers are extremely dangerous not just to oneself, but to society as well. That is why one serious solution to this societal epidemic is to create a portion of the driving test where drivers will be required to be at least ten beers deep and while drunk they must drive through a set of
Drunk driving has been an increasing problem for many years. One issue that contributes to this is that in the United States it is actually legal to drive with a certain alcohol percentage. The blood alcohol limit is 0.8 percent (Drunk Driving). This means that a person may drive legally as long as they have a blood alcohol percentage of 0.8 percent or under. However, even at a percentage of 0.3 there may be some impairment of alertness and concentration (Drunk Driving). Driving requires fast reflexes that may be impaired at a 0.5 percent blood alcohol level but a person with this level of intoxication is not legally drinking and driving. Many people are arrested for drunk driving. In 2009, more than 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving while under the influence (Drunk Driving). In addition, “an average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before their first arrest” (Get Involved). Therefore, there were a minimum of 112 million accounts of drunk driving in 2009 alone. Drunk drivers also cause an increasing number of deaths. Drunk drivers in the United States c...
Today, approximately 62% of all employers in the US have a mandatory drug testing program. Drug testing in the workforce has been a very controversial topic ever since. Drug testing should not be in the workplace since it does not measure on the job impairment, does not prevent accidents and is an invasion of privacy. There is no clear evidence that drug testing at work has a significant deterrent effect. Drug testing is not a measure of current intoxication and will reveal information about drug use that can have no impact on safety, productivity or performance.
Thus having a mandatory jail term system will significantly help to take the stance of “ZERO TOLERANCE” for individuals who believe that they can do as they please and drive while under the influence. Enough is enough and before any more innocent lives are lost, before any more property is carelessly destroyed, a stance must be taken to eradicate the disease called DUI.
The ethics of drug testing has become an increased concern for many companies in the recent years. More companies are beginning to use it and more people are starting more to have problems with it. The tests are now more than ever seen as a way to stop the problems of drug abuse in the workplace. This brings up a very large question. Is drug testing an ethical way to decide employee drug use? It is also very hard to decide if the test is an invasion of employee privacy. “The ethical status of workplace drug testing can be expressed as a question of competing interests, between the employer’s right to use testing to reduce drug related harms and maximize profits, over against the employee’s right to privacy, particularly with regard to drug use which occurs outside the workplace.” (Cranford 2) The rights of the employee have to be considered. The Supreme Court case, Griswold vs. Connecticut outlines the idea that every person is entitled to a privacy zone. However this definition covers privacy and protection from government. To work productively especially when the work may be physical it is nearly impossible to keep one’s privacy. The relationship between employer and employee is based on a contract. The employee provides work for the employer and in return he is paid. If the employee cannot provide services because of problems such as drug abuse, then he is violating the contract. Employers have the right to know many things about their employees.
There are some pros to having drug tests though. A good thing about drug testing periodically would be that it could possibly frighten employees to do and use drugs, then they would stay clean and hopefully diminish the number of accidents and/or fatalities at the work place. It is a proven fact that a typical recreational drug user in today’s work force is 2.2 times more likely to request time off or an early dismissal. They are 2.5 times more likely to have eight or more days of absences, three more times likely to be late for work and a third less productive on his or her job (USA TODAY MAGAZINE, JAN. 1995 PP-81-82). Also that if a person is caught with drugs then the employer could help this person, send him to a rehabilitation and hopefully get this person off of drugs before it becomes to late.
Driving under the influence is one of the most common and dangerous situations in which anyone can be or be placed. Drinking and driving is a serious offence that can cause someone to be physically harm or even killed. Not only are you putting yourself at risk but you are also risking the lives of passengers in the car as well as any other car and occupants sharing the road with you. Many people believe that increasing fines for drunk driving offenders will play a compelling role in cutting down the occurrences of driving under the influence. However, while harsher DUI laws will look effective on paper, they will not make a significant step in the fight against drunk driving. Although there is a law enforced for drinking and driving in the
These schools and training institutes offer complete assistance for their students to learn every required skill to become a safe and reliable driver. In addition, many of these schools also offer proper assistance to their students in finding a good job as a trucker. Professionally, a truck driving job is considered as a high salaried job and hence, many people look forward to get in the trucking industry as a driver. These CDL training schools train these people to easily handle the pressures and responsibilities of a truck driver. Furthermore, these trucker training schools are also important because they make every truck driver aspirant aware of all necessary legal traffic regulations of their state and other states. Another advantage of these training schools is that they ensure that no unskilled and unprofessional person may enter in the profession of truck driving. This helps in reducing the fatalities in road accidents involving heavy motor vehicles.
Not only does a drug test show drug use, but it also shows other health problems such as diabetes. An employer receives a full evaluation of that employee and what to expect. Someone may feel employers drug test in order to check up on their employees, but an employer needs to go through a lot of factors to conduct it. Even after conducting it, to fire an employee over it a lot has to go on. It has to go all on the books and a file needs to be reported, but like I said earlier no employer wants to make their life harder.