Sharing the road with large commercial trucks is an inevitable part of life in Louisiana, but studies show that many of the people driving those trucks are engaging in highly dangerous behaviors before or while behind the wheel. While anyone who drinks or abuses drugs before driving endangers everyone who crosses his or her path, commercial truck drivers who do so pose a particularly serious threat to the public due to the sheer size and weight of their vehicles.
According to the American Addiction Centers, truck drivers often have several factors at play that contribute to their decision to use drugs or alcohol on the job. For example, the trucking lifestyle is often a lonely one, and some truckers try to combat their feelings of isolation by turning to liquor or drugs. In other cases, truck drivers are turning to certain types of drugs, among them amphetamines, because they believe they can improve their performance.
More specifically, amphetamines may, for a little while, boost alertness, but they can also cause truck drivers to feel as if they are invincible, which can cause unnecessary risk-taking. Alcohol abuse, meanwhile, can affect many areas of a commercial trucker’s professional performance, impacting everything from his or her ability to concentrate to his or her ability to stay awake and make smart decisions.
So, just how often are truck drivers turning to alcohol and drugs? Across 36 separate studies, about 90 percent of truck drivers involved in them admitted drinking on the job. Furthermore, more than 8 percent said they had used cocaine while at work, while another roughly 82 percent acknowledged having used amphetamines at some point during their trucking careers.
This information is meant exclusively for educational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.