Among the many risks that you face when taking to the road in Georgia is being hit by a drunk driver or a drugged driver. When this impaired driver happens to be a commercially licensed driver operating a large and heavy vehicle like a tractor trailer, the consequences of an accident can be gruesome and tragic to say the least. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is the arm of the federal government tasked with monitoring commercial transportation nationwide and maintaining public safety.
The FMCSA has developed what it calls its Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse in an effort to curb and ideally eliminate instances of drugged or drunk driving by truckers. The clearinghouse is essentially a database repository of testing and violation records for drivers with commercial driving licenses. The program requires that truckers submit to substance testing before they can be hired for a driving job. The results of these tests are logged to the database. Failure of a test may prevent them from being able to drive commercially.
Employers must also review the database every year to ensure no new violations have been added on a specific driver’s record. No new or amended commercial license should be issued until the appropriate issuing agency first reviews the database. Federal authorities may also search the clearinghouse for violations when investigating truck accidents.
If you would like to learn more about the problems associated with drugged or drunk driving by truckers, please feel free to visit the commercial truck crash page of our Georgia personal injury and motor vehicle accident website.