National Safety Council Favors Confirmation of Positive Drug Tests in Transportation Safety Cases
Itasca, Ill. – The National Safety Council (NSC) today announced support for confirmation of positive drug
screen results in transportation safety cases. Representatives of the NSC’s 50,000 member organizations adopted this
policy statement recently at their annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif.:
The National Safety Council and its Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs
strongly recommends that all presumptive positive drug screen results in samples obtained following transportation
accidents be confirmed by an alternate analytical method prior to issuing a report. The practice of reporting presumptive
positive results in these cases should be abolished. The transportation accident cases that are being referred to result
from city, county, state or municipality enforcement entities requiring drug screens on drivers of cars, vans and non CDL
regulated trucks who are involved in traffic related crashes. These drivers could be alive, injured or dead when the tests
are administered.
The full policy statement is available on the NSC website.
“When a professional driver with a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) is involved in a crash, drug screens following
the crash are taken and any positive screens are confirmed by an alternative analytical method,” explained Janet Froetscher,
NSC President & CEO. “Through this national standard, our nation’s professional drivers are protected from being unfairly
punished by an inaccurate initial screen.
“This new policy reflects the NSC’s belief that this national standard that protects professional drivers should be
applied to protect everyone in society,” Froetscher said. “This policy calls on states and municipalities to apply this
standard of confirmatory second tests to assure that innocent citizens involved in traffic crashes are not penalized by
inaccurate initial drug screens.
“The consequences to an individual who has a false-positive test may include loss of current and future employment,
damage to reputation, denial of Workmen’s Compensation benefits and unnecessary complications in any criminal or civil
litigation arising from a crash,” she concluded.
The policy follows the accepted practice of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the American Board of Forensic
Toxicologists, the Society of Forensic Toxicologists and other forensic toxicology laboratories worldwide.
The National Safety Council (www.nsc.org)
saves lives by preventing injuries and deaths at work, in homes, communities
and on the roads, through leadership, research, education and advocacy.
