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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
04/16/2024 08:45 AM
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20170&cosponId=26000
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House of Representatives
Session of 2017 - 2018 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: June 8, 2018 01:55 PM
From: Representative Ron Marsico
To: All House members
Subject: Post-Accident Testing
 
I invite you to join me in co-sponsoring legislation to amend 75 Pa.C.S. § 3756 (Accidents involving certain vehicles) to reference the federal requirements under 49 CFR 382.303 regarding the duties of an employer and driver of a commercial motor carrier for post-accident testing.

Current PA law at 75 Pa.C.S. § 3756 (Accidents involving certain vehicles) contradicts the Federal Regulation for post-accident testing in 49 CFR 382.303, which Pennsylvania has adopted by reference in 67 Pa. Code § 229.14 and 67 Pa. Code § 231.7.

Under 75 Pa.C.S. § 3756, a police officer investigating an accident involving a motor carrier shall request that the driver of the vehicle submit to drug and alcohol testing whose costs shall be borne by the driver’s employer. The trucking industry has experienced many examples where their drivers are being required to submit to a drug or alcohol test even if the driver wasn’t at fault or received a citation for a moving violation because § 3756 is being interpreted to require drivers to be tested simply because they were operating a commercial motor vehicle.

Moreover, the testing required under § 3756 is not considered a post-accident test under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations at 49 CFR 382.303; therefore, such a test is not conducted under a Federal Chain of Custody report. As a result, neither the FMCSA or PennDOT would be notified of the results nor would the motor carrier. Since the motor carrier does not have immediate access to the police reports, they cannot act on the drug or alcohol test until they actually have knowledge of it. Getting the driver tested several days after the accident is essentially meaningless.

I believe that the Federal Regulations provide a more stringent, complete and consistent standard for post-accident testing, which should be incorporated by reference into Pennsylvania law.

Your support of this legislation would be appreciated.


Introduced as HB2547