Florida Injury Attorney Blog

Driving while impaired due to excessive alcohol use is dangerous for anyone, but the stakes and potential for injuries are greater when a tractor trailer is involved.  For this reason, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) promulgated certain rules to try to prevent truck drivers from driving under the influence of alcohol.  These rules apply to any employee who engages in safety-sensitive duties such as driving a commercial motor vehicle which requires a commercial driver's license (CDL). 

Regarding alcohol, the rules prohibit the performance of any safety-sensitive functions while using alcohol, while having a breath alcohol concentration of 0.4 or greater or within four hours of drinking alcohol.  If a tractor trailer driver is involved in an accident that causes an injury to someone requiring medical attention or causes property damage that requires a vehicle to be towed from the scene and the tractor trailer driver is ticketed for the crash, he or she must submit to a post-accident alcohol test.  He or she must also submit to a post-accident alcohol test if the accident involved a death regardless of whether he or she was given a ticket for the crash.  Additionally, regardless of whether there was a crash, if there is reasonable suspicion to believe that a truck driver is under the influence of alcohol, perhaps due to behavior, appearance or odor, an alcohol breath test must be administered or, if that is not possible, the driver must not be permitted to drive for at least 24 hours.

It is a violation of the regulations for a driver required to take the alcohol test after such an accident to either refuse to do so or to use alcohol within eight hours after the accident but before the test.   Drivers who violate the regulations pertaining to misuse of alcohol must be immediately removed from safety-sensitive functions, such as driving a tractor trailer, and may not return until they have been evaluated and cleared by a substance abuse professional.