Services Undercover cops find it ‘easy’ to cheat on trucker drug tests

WASHINGTON — Undercover federal investigators discovered that it was surprisingly easy to cheat on random drug tests designed to catch truck drivers who use drugs, NBC News reported Wednesday night.

Undercover investigators with the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, used bogus truck driver’s licenses to gain access to 24 drug-testing sites. They found that 75 percent “failed to restrict access to items that could be used to adulterate or dilute the [urine] specimen, meaning that running water, soap, or air freshener was available in the bathroom during the test.”

The GAO team also bought drug-masking products over the Web and was able to mix them with real specimens at the drug-testing sites “without being caught by site collectors,” the agency said in a report scheduled to be made public Thursday.

Drug-screening labs never realized that there was a problem. “Every drug masking product went undetected by the drug screening labs,” said the report, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News.

A spokeswoman for the Transportation Department, which requires motor carriers to test their employees and sets the regulations for collections, said driver errors, not drug use, caused most accidents.

“Our efforts on this front have been critical in helping us reduce the number of large truck fatalities by nearly 5 percent last year — the largest decline in four years,” said the spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

But Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who asked GAO to investigate, said the report was “frankly astonishing and shocking and dismaying. You can manipulate the tests, you can mask substance abuse and go undetected on the roadways.”

Oberstar, who planned to hold a hearing Thursday, said the drug-testing system was broken and was placing other drivers in danger.

“It fails, it is not sufficient, it is not protecting the public interest,” he said.

The Transportation Department estimates that fewer than 2 percent of truck drivers test positive each year for controlled substances in random federal tests. But when Oregon law enforcement officials conducted their own random tests this year, 9 percent of truck drivers tested positive.

Dozens of products widely available on the Web are marketed to truckers as fail-safe ways to defeat the mandatory drug tests.

“My first reaction was total disbelief. I just felt sick,” said Kathleen Ellsbury, whose husband, Tony Qamar, was killed two years ago when a truck driver in Washington state lost his load of logs on a curve, crushing Qamar’s car. Also killed was Daniel Johnson, a fellow seismologist at the University of Washington.

Ellsbury learned later that the truck driver, who was sentenced to 4½ years in prison for vehicular homicide, had previously been convicted of possessing methamphetamines and that he had meth in his blood at the time of the crash.

“The system has big holes, let’s say that,” said Ellsbury, who said she had a message for truck drivers who might be tempted to cheat: “I’d like to be standing right outside the bathroom and hold up a picture of my husband — remind them there's consequences.”

Spokesmen for the trucking industry said truck drivers were among the safest drivers on the road, with much lower rates of drug use than the general population. Still, they said, having roughly 30,000 drivers test positive each year was unacceptable.

The Transportation Department spokeswoman, while blaming “commercial and passenger driver errors” for most highway deaths, said the department was continuing to “work with our state law enforcement partners to aggressively ensure trucking companies comply with our regulations, including drug and alcohol enforcement.”

“In 2006 alone, this combined federal and state effort led to more than 5,000 enforcement cases that resulted in more than $19 million in fines and 1,035 companies being taken out of service,” she said.

The Trucker; Thursday, November 1, 2007

DOT Drug Testing Easily Beaten, Oversight Limited, Compliance Lacking

The Department of Transportation's efforts to reduce truck and bus crashes by making sure that drivers are not using illegal drugs are being hampered by "a significant lack of compliance" by motor carriers and limited oversight by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, preliminary reports issued by the Government Accountability Office Nov. 1 found.

Compliance is especially lacking among small carriers and self-employed drivers, according to the GAO testimony on the integrity of drug testing programs before the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. The testimony and a related report on urine collection centers are part of a GAO project expected to be complete in May 2008.

Violations of drug testing protocols are noted in more than 40 percent of FMCSA's safety audits of newer motor carrier operations conducted since 2003, and more than 70 percent of the compliance reviews conducted on carriers already in the industry in 2001, the agency said.

GAO's investigation into the drug testing program also found that FMCSA's oversight activities are limited in quantity and scope. Only newer motor carriers are subject to safety audits. Carriers that were in business earlier than 2003 are covered by FMCSA's compliance review system, which examines the performance of only about 2 percent of carriers each year.

While illegal drug use is not among the most frequently cited factors associated with large truck crashes, studies show that use of illegal drugs can severely impair driving ability. Crashes involving trucks and buses account for 13 percent of all highway deaths each year, the report said.

Since 1988, federal regulations have required commercial drivers to submit urine samples to be tested for drugs. The testing covers five drug categories--marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, opiates, and phencyclidine (PCP).

FMCSA data shows that between 1.3 percent and 2.8 percent of drivers tested positive for the presence of illegal drugs from 1994 to 2005. Concern exists that some drivers may be escaping detection, the report said.

Drug Testing Compliance

Issues of compliance with drug testing programs extend to the companies that collect urine samples, GAO said. In a separate report, GAO details an investigation in which the agency created fictitious trucking companies and bogus driver's licenses to see whether 24 urine collection sites were following agency protocols.

Investigators posed as truck drivers and gained access to all 24 sites "demonstrating that a drug user could send someone to take a drug test in their place using false identification," the report said.

In 22 of the 24 urine collection sites, the company did not adequately follow the protocols GAO was examining. For example, in 75 percent of the sites, drivers had access to items that could be used to adulterate or dilute the specimen. Using drug-masking products purchased on Web sites, GAO investigators used adulterants at four sites and substituted synthetic urine at four other sites "without being caught by site collectors," the report said.

BNA's Transportation Watch: Monday, November 5, 2007

GAO: Easy to cheat on trucker drug tests; 3/4 of testing sites don’t provide secure conditions

WASHINGTON - Undercover federal investigators discovered that it was surprisingly easy to cheat on random drug tests designed to catch truck drivers who use drugs, NBC News has learned.

Undercover investigators with the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, used bogus truck driver’s licenses to gain access to 24 drug-testing sites. They found that 75 percent “failed to restrict access to items that could be used to adulterate or dilute the [urine] specimen, meaning that running water, soap, or air freshener was available in the bathroom during the test.”

The GAO team also bought drug-masking products over the Web and was able to mix them with real specimens at the drug-testing sites “without being caught by site collectors,” the agency said in a report scheduled to be made public Thursday.

Drug-screening labs never realized that there was a problem. “Every drug masking product went undetected by the drug screening labs,” said the report, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News.

DOT cites drop in road deaths

A spokeswoman for the Transportation Department, which requires motor carriers to test their employees and sets the regulations for collections, said driver errors, not drug use, caused most accidents.

“Our efforts on this front have been critical in helping us reduce the number of large truck fatalities by nearly 5 percent last year — the largest decline in four years,” said the spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

But Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who asked GAO to investigate, said the report was “frankly astonishing and shocking and dismaying. You can manipulate the tests, you can mask substance abuse and go undetected on the roadways.”

Oberstar, who planned to hold a hearing Thursday, said the drug-testing system was broken and was placing other drivers in danger.

“It fails, it is not sufficient, it is not protecting the public interest,” he said.

How many are cheating?

The Transportation Department estimates that fewer than 2 percent of truck drivers test positive each year for controlled substances in random federal tests. But when Oregon law enforcement officials conducted their own random tests this year, 9 percent of truck drivers tested positive.

Dozens of products widely available on the Web are marketed to truckers as fail-safe ways to defeat the mandatory drug tests.

“My first reaction was total disbelief. I just felt sick,” said Kathleen Ellsbury, whose husband, Tony Qamar, was killed two years ago when a truck driver in Washington state lost his load of logs on a curve, crushing Qamar’s car. Also killed was Daniel Johnson, a fellow seismologist at the University of Washington.

Ellsbury learned later that the truck driver, who was sentenced to 4½ years in prison for vehicular homicide, had previously been convicted of possessing methamphetamines and that he had meth in his blood at the time of the crash.

“The system has big holes, let’s say that,” said Ellsbury, who said she had a message for truck drivers who might be tempted to cheat: “I’d like to be standing right outside the bathroom and hold up a picture of my husband — remind them there's consequences.”

Truckers promise to do better

Spokesmen for the trucking industry said truck drivers were among the safest drivers on the road, with much lower rates of drug use than the general population. Still, they said, having roughly 30,000 drivers test positive each year was unacceptable.

The Transportation Department spokeswoman, while blaming “commercial and passenger driver errors” for most highway deaths, said the department was continuing to “work with our state law enforcement partners to aggressively ensure trucking companies comply with our regulations, including drug and alcohol enforcement.”

“In 2006 alone, this combined federal and state effort led to more than 5,000 enforcement cases that resulted in more than $19 million in fines and 1,035 companies being taken out of service,” she said.

MSNBC; Wednesday, October 31, 2007

By Lisa Myers and Richard Gardella

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