D.O.T. Post-accident Testing Requirements

The Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991 requires drug and alcohol testing of safety-sensitive transportation employees in aviation, trucking, railroads, mass transit, pipelines and other transportation industries.

Trucks and drivers are under the auspices of The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Under certain conditions drivers involved in traffic accidents may require drug and alcohol testing if there is a fatality, the driver receives a citation, or there is disabling damage to the vehicle.

As soon as practicable following an accident involving a commercial motor vehicle on a public road, each employer is required to test for alcohol and drugs each surviving driver when either:
the accident involved a fatality; or
the driver receives a citation under state or local law for a moving traffic violation arising from an accident that involved:
1) injury requiring medical treatment away from the scene, or
2) one or more vehicles having to be towed from the scene

The Department of Transporation requires that the drug and alcohol tests be performed within a two hour period from the time of the accident. If this is not possible, the employer is required to keep records as to the procedures that they followed to attempt to complete the required testing.

A flow chart that makes it easy to determine if testing is required can be found here: DOT post-accident testing requirments