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How often are commercial truckers abusing drugs and alcohol?

If traveling alongside commercial trucks on Pennsylvania’s roadways makes you uneasy, your concerns may be justifiable, because when cars and trucks get into crashes, the people in the cars often suffer the most. Semi-trucks pose a threat to all motorists even under the best possible conditions, but regrettably, many truck drivers are also taking risks while on the job that can endanger everyone they encounter.

Some of those risks, per the American Addiction Centers, involve abusing drugs or alcohol before getting behind, or while sitting at, their truck’s controls, and unfortunately, truckers abuse substances far more than you might think. Just how frequently are professional truck drivers turning to drugs and alcohol while at work?

According to the results of a series of studies involving trucker habits conducted between 2000 and 2013, trucker substance abuse is an extremely prevalent problem in the industry. As many as 91% of the semi-truck drivers involved in the studies attested that they had abused alcohol at some point while driving their trucks, making alcohol the most commonly abused substance in the industry.

Alcohol was not, however, the only substance used by truckers while at work. About 82.5% of truckers in those 36 studies said they had abused amphetamines while at on the clock, whether in an attempt to stay alert longer, finish a job faster or what have you. More than 8% of truck drivers surveyed also confirmed that they had used cocaine at work at some point, despite the fact that doing so can impact judgment and lead them to take unnecessary risks behind the wheel.

This copy about the prevalence of substance abuse in the trucking industry is informational in nature and does not constitute legal advice.