Last updated : May 12, 2025
We understand that when a situation arises and you need an employee tested for drug or alcohol impairment, it’s important! We are prepared to handle your immediate or emergency testing no matter when or where you need it.
Traditionally, emergency testing falls under the following headings:
- Reasonable suspicion testing—An employee of the safety-sensitive or general workforce appears to be currently impaired by drugs or alcohol and needs drug testing as soon as possible.
- DOT post-accident testing—Certain situations require a DOT post-accident drug test, they are:
- If the accident involves a human fatality
- A vehicle is towed from the accident
- Your driver receives a moving violation
- Someone in the accident is transported from the accident site to a hospital for treatment
- Someone involved in the accident seeks medical attention on their own if the driver of the commercial motor vehicle (CMV) received a moving violation
- Non-DOT post-accident testing—Employers of the safety-sensitive and general workforces alike may have a drug-free policy that requires emergency testing for other post-accident drug testing scenarios. Say, if someone driving a company vehicle scrapes a pole at a drive-thru, perhaps, or fails to observe posted clearance requirements and scrapes the underside of an overpass.
Because time is of the essence, USAMDT strives to meet the DOT’s “best practice” suggestion, which is to have testing completed in less than two hours and not more than eight. The suggestion is in regard to alcohol testing due to the fact that the substance metabolizes and exits the body quickly. The longer the wait, the lower the level detected in the breath. We, however, do our best to apply this practice to all of our immediate or emergency drug and alcohol test calls.
Don’t stress about an emergency test
You never know when a situation will arise that requires emergency drug or alcohol testing according to company policy. Rather than accompanying your employee to the nearest drug testing facility and enduring the waiting process, we suggest you contact us before the need arises and set up an account.
That way, your company is already established in our system. It saves you time when you’re on the clock, especially when testing for alcohol. It leaves the body at a much faster rate than drugs. Even so, time is of the essence when drug use is suspected as well. In fact, many employers choose to use the mouth swab test for emergency drug testing. It’s also known as an oral fluid drug test. It has a shorter detection window, thereby indicating recent drug use.
Once you’re all set up and you need emergency drug or alcohol testing, grab the phone and call us. We’ll show up wherever you need us. At your facility? On the job site? Or if you receive notification of an accident and your employee is on the road, we’ll even arrange to meet them at their next stop. Moreover, if an accident happens during the night shift and there’s no facility open, we’ve got you covered then too.
USAMDT is a mobile drug testing company that is prepared to roll out at any hour of the day or night—365 days a year. We do our level best to arrive within two hours of the accident. Should it take a bit of time to make the arrangements on our end due to location or middle of the night testing, rest assured that we aren’t putting you on a back burner. Instead, we’re running full throttle to get to you as quickly as possible.