Whenever a truck accident involves a fatality, the trucking company is required to perform an alcohol and drug test on the driver. The truck driver also has to be tested whenever there’s an accident and the vehicles cannot be driven away from the scene of the accident, or when one of the injured persons has to be transported by ambulance to the hospital. Now, these tests by the trucking company have to be performed as soon as possible after the accident.
If the trucking company for whatever reason does not perform the test, then that may be evidence which would be admissible in a court of law to show that the trucking company was actually trying to hide something. If the trucking company fails to perform either the drug or the alcohol test within two hours of the accident, then they have to maintain a record and explain exactly why they felt to perform that test on the driver within the two-hour period.
If the test itself cannot be completed on the driver within an eight-hour period, then the trucking company is supposed to stop any attempts to even get a test on the driver. If local officials have gone ahead and taken either a blood sample or any type of sample from the driver for alcohol or for drugs then the motor carrier is not required to actually take an independent sample of their own.
Most of the time, in these trucking accident cases, the attorneys will go ahead and get the results of the drug or urine test, or alcohol test, or whatever test the company may have done. Usually, in these types of cases, the trucking accident attorneys will go ahead and give a court order to obtain the test results or to determine what were the reasons the company did not actually perform the test. If you have questions about these matters, please call me at 770-792-1000.