Georgia Injury Lawyers Blog
Random Testing: Overview
All motor carriers must participate in a random testing program that tests for alcohol and drugs. The regulations set out detailed requirements of the percent of employees performing safety-sensitive functions who must be tested. No reported case involving a personal injury claim against the motor carrier, and dealing with this regulation, was noted during research. This suggests that attorneys might be missing an opportunity to reveal a violation that would be especially relevant in a case involving intoxication.
While the random nature of the testing required by the regulations makes it difficult to say a driver would have been randomly tested, a failure to comply at least gives rise to the possibility that he could have been tested, and thus possibly prevented from causing the accident in question. Random drug testing logically acts as a deterrent to alchohol and drug use, a point which may not be lost on an attentive juror.