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Experienced Mississippi Trucking Attorney Explains: USDOT to Expand Drug Testing in 2018

If you are a long-haul trucker in Mississippi, you need to be aware of a new change in store for 2018 that could affect the way you earn your living. In response to the opioid epidemic in the United States, the United States Department of Transportation is adding additional drugs to the list to its drug-testing panel: hydrocodone, hydromorphone, oxymorphone, and oxycodone to its drug-testing panel.  Additionally, the USDOT is adding methylenedioxyamphetamine as an initial test analyte; and removing methylenedioxyethylamphetamine as a confirmatory test analyte.

These new drugs become subject to testing on January 1, 2018.

Of course, what makes these additional drugs complex to regulate is that, as opposed to illegal narcotics such as heroin or cocaine, the new additions are all legal with a prescription. Accordingly, you could have a positive test for them because you are using them according to a physician-issued prescription.

If you are required to take a drug test either as part of an employer mandated policy or after an accident, you need to know your rights. As opposed to having the presence of illegal drugs in your system, there may be a legitimate and legal reason that you have one of these substances in your system.  If you are disciplined as a result of a “hot” test for any of these drugs, it is imperative that you contact an experienced trucking attorney immediately to protect your rights.

The Challenges of Testing for Opioids

We are all familiar with laws regarding DUI and the roadside stops and breath tests to detect alcohol in the blood of a driver. While those tests are hardly perfect, they are based on much more predictable science than testing for opioids. When a person consumes alcohol, it first enters the body through ingestion, quickly enters the blood stream, and is then expelled from the body. If you were to graph the amount of alcohol in a person’s blood after drinking, the graph would resemble a traditional bell curve, with very small amounts of alcohol at the time of initial ingestion, rising amounts while it is in the blood stream, and a sharp decrease back down to zero once it is expelled.

Opioids, like many other drugs, do not behave in the system like alcohol. If you have ever been prescribed these drugs, you know that they accumulate in the body slowly over days.  That is because opioids accumulate in fat cells and do not just pass through the digestive and circulatory system like alcohol. Several days after using a prescribed opioid, you likely still have it excreting into your blood through fat cells that absorbed it days ago. If you have been taking a prescription opioid for a long period of time, you may be within the therapeutic dosage limits, but have enough of a prohibited drug in your system to suggest abuse. 

While opioids have existed for quite a while, the effort to regulate their use in industries such as trucking remains new. Unlike alcohol, testing protocols are not well developed and can erroneously suggest a person using opioids for a legitimate health issue is actually abusing them. 

What Should You Do if You Fail a Drug Test?

If you are accused of abusing opioids due to these new USDOT rules or any other company mandated drug testing, call an experienced trucking attorney to protect your rights.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi trucking law firm, to represent you if you have failed a drug test or are having other trucking-related legal problems

Barrett Law has the experience to protect your rights, your livelihood, and your income.  Contact us now at (800) 707-9577 to get experienced counsel on your side.

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Experienced Mississippi Trucking Attorney Discusses Report on Common Causes of Trucking Accidents

When a large truck crashes, small cars’ passengers are usually the victim. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports that in 2015, 3,852 people died in crashes involving large trucks. The vast majority (69%) of those victims were people riding in passenger vehicles. Sixteen percent of these deaths were truck occupants and 15 percent were pedestrians, bicyclists, or motorcyclists. As a interstate carrier, it is vital to know the factors that contribute to serious accidents. If you are involved in an accident, immediately contact an experienced trucking attorney to represent your interests and protect your livelihood and family.

Mechanical Defects

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety researchers collaborated with the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center and the North Carolina State Highway Patrol to examine factors affecting the risk of crashing for large trucks operated by interstate carriers. Their research determined that if an interstate carrier had a serious mechanical defect, there was three times the risk of having a crash.

Driver Fatigue

Long hours behind the wheel can not only lead to exhaustion, but to accidents. Driver fatigue is a significant contributor to crashes involving large trucks. This problem can be exacerbated by the use of the short-haul exemption for federal hours-of-service rules. The reason for the relationship between exhaustion and short-haul drivers is that while short-haul drivers have to comply with federal rules on rest and driving times, short-haul exemption drivers do not have the same requirements for logging their driving hours. As a result, without a requirement to log hours, some short-haul drivers drive longer than they should, become exhausted, and get into accidents.

Short-Haul Exemption Drivers

Short-haul exemption drivers are drivers who normally drive short distances, but get an exemption work as an interstate carrier. They are not necessarily accustomed to the legal requirements of interstate carriers. Less experience can translate to less ability, less skill, and more accidents. A lack of familiarity with the legal requirements that interstate carriers have to comply with can result in increased safety violations and accidents.

Are There Safety Solutions on the Horizon?

To combat inaccurate mileage logs, there is a new federal mandate requiring electronic logging devices (ELDs) – set to take effect in late 2017 – there is a belief that automating the tracking of hours driven will decrease the impulse to drive to exhaustion and make those unsafe extra hours trackable, and ultimately punishable by administrative or legal action.

Another technological advance that could have an effect on highway safety is crash avoidance technology, which is now being required on large trucks. These technological changes seek to mitigate the damage by large trucks. Specifically, electronic stability control systems, which help control situations where drivers either understeer or oversteer, and roll stability control that reduce rollovers are being added to trucks and may soon be required. Having anti-lock breaks is another factor reducing the chance of a catastrophic crash.

If you are an long haul trucker or interstate carrier, you need to have an understanding of both the safety concerns that could lead to accidents, as well as the legal changes that are affecting your profession. New rules aimed at curbing the danger posed by large trucks to passenger vehicles affect how you do business.

Call Barrett Law now at (800) 707-9577 if you need to understand new rules affecting interstate carriers or if you are in an accident.

Contacting the Mississippi Trucking Attorney at Barrett Law can mean the difference between working in compliance with the law and protecting your livelihood and losing your ability to drive. There are serious safety and financial implications to your decision to attain knowledgeable legal counsel as you work to comply with the law or react to an accident.

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