By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, August 29, 1991
The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03
Random drug testing, now being reconsidered for New York subway workers in the wake of Wednesday morning’s fatal derailment, is a fact of life for NJ Transit employees, who move most of the state’s bus and rail travelers, officials say.
Five passengers died and 259 people, including rescuers, were injured when a Manhattan IRT train derailed near the Union Square station at 14th Street shortly after midnight. A vial that later tested positive for crack cocaine was found in the motorman’s cab.
Most mass transit passengers in New Jersey come under federal drug-testing regulations that were enacted three years after the 1987 collision between Conrail locomotives and an Amtrak passenger train in which 16 people were killed and 175 injured. Those rules, enacted by the Federal Railroad Administration, mandate random drug testing for about 1,400 NJ Transit rail employees who hold safety-sensitive positions, said NJ Transit spokesman Jeff Lamm.
The New Jersey Supreme Court last year swept away a challenge of drug testing’s constitutionality by about 4,200 NJ Transit bus employees in similar jobs.
PATH train workers holding the safety-sensitive jobs are also subject to the federal agency’s regulations on periodic random testing, said John Kampfe, a spokesman for the Port Authority.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the New York subways, is not subject to the federal agency’s guidelines. Instead, it falls under the jurisdiction of the federal Urban Mass Transportation Authority, which has been seeking federal legislation that would allow it to set drug-testing guidelines.
New York City Mayor David Dinkins and MTA Chairman Peter Stangl both said drug-testing procedures may have to be reexamined and random drug testing might be instituted because of the derailment.
The testing would have to be negotiated with the transit unions, which have fought to cut back on the amount of testing.
This article contains material from The Associated Press.
Keywords: DRUG; TEST; NEW JERSEY; EMPLOYMENT; TRANSIT; RAILROAD; ACCIDENT; DEATH; VICTIM; NEW YORK CITY; ABUSE; ALCOHOL; BUS
ID: 17353834 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)
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