Drug and Alcohol Tests After a Truck Crash: The 8-Hour and 32-Hour Windows

Quick answer: After certain truck crashes, federal rule 49 CFR 382.303 requires the trucking company to test its driver for alcohol and drugs as soon as practicable. Any crash with a death triggers both tests. A crash with an injury treated away from the scene, or a vehicle towed, triggers them if the driver gets a citation in time: within 8 hours for alcohol, within 32 hours for drugs. Alcohol testing stops at 8 hours and drug testing at 32 hours.

After a serious truck crash in North Carolina, those tests, or a missing test, can tell you a lot. Here is who must be tested, when, and what records the carrier has to keep.

Which truck drivers do these testing rules cover?

Generally, people who drive a commercial motor vehicle and are subject to the commercial driver’s license rules, along with their employers. The duty sits on the employer: section 382.303 says “each employer shall test” for each of its surviving drivers. It applies to an occurrence involving a commercial motor vehicle operating on a public road in commerce.

What kind of crash triggers a test?

Three kinds. It depends on the harm and on whether the driver was cited. A death requires a test whether or not there was a citation. An injury or a tow-away requires a test only if there was a citation. The federal rule includes this table, restated here:

Type of crash	Driver cited?	Must the employer test?
A death	Yes or no	Yes
Injury with immediate medical treatment away from the scene	Yes	Yes
Injury with immediate medical treatment away from the scene	No	No
A vehicle with disabling damage, towed from the scene	Yes	Yes
A vehicle with disabling damage, towed from the scene	No	No

Under the rule, the citation has to be for a moving traffic violation arising from the crash, under state or local law. It has to come within 8 hours for the alcohol test and within 32 hours for the drug test.

How do the 8-hour and 32-hour windows work?

Both tests must happen as soon as practicable. For alcohol, if a test has not been given within 2 hours, the employer must prepare and keep a record stating why. At 8 hours the employer stops trying and keeps the same record. For drugs, the employer stops trying at 32 hours and records the reasons.

Why does the timing matter so much?

Because a test that never happens can’t answer the question. Once a window closes, the rule tells the employer to stop trying. What is left is the record of why the test was not given, and that record should be requested. Records must be submitted to FMCSA on request, so they should exist.

The rule also says a driver subject to testing must stay readily available or may be deemed to have refused. It does not require delaying necessary medical care, and it allows a driver to leave the scene to get help or emergency care.

Can a police test count instead?

Yes, in some cases. The rule says a breath or blood alcohol test, or a urine drug test, done by federal, state or local law enforcement with independent authority meets the requirement, as long as it follows the applicable testing rules and the employer obtains the results. So the first place to look may be the police file, as well as the carrier’s.

Are there exceptions?

A few. The section does not apply to an occurrence involving only boarding or alighting from a stationary vehicle, only loading or unloading cargo, or the operation of a passenger car or multipurpose vehicle by an employer unless it is carrying passengers for hire or placarded hazardous materials.

How long does the carrier keep test records?

Between one and five years, depending on the record. Section 382.401 says alcohol results of 0.02 or greater, verified positive drug results, and refusals to test are kept for at least five years. Records of the collection process are kept for at least two years. Negative drug results and alcohol results under 0.02 are kept for at least one year.

Those periods are longer than for driver logs or driver inspection reports, which is another reason to request everything at once rather than one record at a time.

What does a test result mean for your claim?

It is one piece of the case. A positive test can help explain a crash. A clean test, or none, does not end the question of who caused it, and the fault fight still matters in North Carolina, where one finding of fault can bar your claim. The same goes for what coverage the carrier has.

Why call The Emory Law Firm about a truck crash?

Randy Emory worked in State Farm’s claims department for three years after law school, and he started The Emory Law Firm in Charlotte in 2001. See the firm’s truck accident page for how a truck claim differs from a car claim, or read more about Randy.

If you were seriously hurt, or you lost someone, in a crash with a commercial truck, talk to the firm at (704) 371-4333. The firm is bilingual, in English and Spanish.