Driving Under The Influence
For many, the reference to operating under the influence is automatically associated with drinking and driving. However, many fail to realize that drugs affect people in the same way alcohol does and that means you can be fined even for just driving after taking prescription medication.
Truck drivers with CDL license are required to be drug tested because they might have drugs in their system while driving. Now if an 18-wheeler truck got into a wreck, there would be some serious damage. That is why trucking companies do not want to take that risk.
Studies have showed that 15% of all interstate truck drivers had marijuana in their system, 12% had stimulants (non-prescription), 5% had prescription stimulants, 2% had cocaine, and less than 1% had alcohol in their system. Now that is an OUI.
The driver does not have to be drunk to be over the limit. The blood alcohol count (BAC) is 0.08% or higher. For truck drivers, it is 0.04%, because they are operating a bigger vehicle and they have long routes.
There is a misconception that being high on marijuana is safer than alcohol but that just is not the case. Marijuana is said to affect your concentration, perception and reaction time for possibly as long as 24 hours versus a 3-4 hour span for alcohol depending on the amount consumed. Marijuana has been the cause in more than 12% of trucking accidents that were fatal.
It is understandable that truck drivers sometimes find it difficult to stay awake, because they do drive for long shifts. This is often the reason they want to use something, such as ice or meth, in order to counteract the tiredness. Unfortunately, it is also extremely easy for truck drivers to get their hands on these drugs at almost any truck stop. There are several that even show that 1 in every 5 truck drivers use those specific drugs in order to stay awake and drive longer.
Since intoxicated drivers are not to be tolerated, law enforcement personnel keep a good eye on truck drivers. Even if it is suspected that a truck driver might be under the influence they will be pulled over and then there are many ways of determining intoxication. There is the breathalyzer test to determine if a driver had been drinking, but then there is also the field sobriety test and the swab drug test.
A breathalyzer is a piece of equipment that a driver has to blow into and it will then show whether or not that person has been drinking and if so, how much. A field sobriety test is well know and is made up of different exercises like nystagmus, walking and turning, touching the nose with a finger, balancing on one leg and the Romberg balance test. The nystagmus test is just when an object is put in front of a suspect’s face by the law enforcement officer and the suspect then has to watch it go back and forth. The eyes basically tell all. An officer also can choose to have a chemical test performed on the suspect’s urine or blood.
The swab test is done by taking a sample of saliva from the suspect’s mouth in which if it comes back “hot” then you are driving OUI.
The bottom line is it is not safe for truckers or anyone to drive under the influence.