Drug Testing on the Way for Bus Drivers : Transportation: Concerned about accidents like one last week near Palm Desert, Congress has ordered rules written for charter firms, transit agencies.

Companies and transit agencies that employ bus drivers are not required to test them for drugs or alcohol--but that is about to change.

A week after a bus carrying teen-age members of a Laguna Niguel church veered off a mountain highway, federal officials said that they are writing regulations that will mandate drug and alcohol testing for transportation workers in safety-sensitive jobs, including transit and charter bus drivers, mechanics and supervisors.

“It’s relatively new legislation and we don’t know the details yet, or the testing procedures that will be mandated,” Chip Bishop of the American Public Transit Assn. said Wednesday. That association represents about 400 transit operations in the United States and Canada.

In recent years, numerous accidents across the nation have involved drivers from transit agencies or charter companies who had used narcotics or alcohol, including the crash last Friday that caused bruises, scratches and broken bones among a busload of teen-age girls.

The charter bus swerved off a highway near Palm Desert and slipped 50 feet down an embankment, injuring 26 girls and four chaperons headed for a weekend retreat. The driver, James A. Miller, 35, of Wilmington, who was fired Tuesday, admitted that he had taken cocaine the morning before the 4 p.m. crash, according to his employer, Transit Contractors of Long Beach.

Congress, however, had gotten the message earlier that drug use can pose a public danger in transportation jobs.

Alarmed by a Manhattan subway crash that killed five people last August, Congress passed its drug and alcohol testing law last fall as part of a U.S. Department of Transportation appropriations bill.

The various agencies within the Department of Transportation have until October to write the final rules and set a deadline for compliance. The bus, railroad, trucking and airline industries will all be affected by the law.

Although most have some type of drug-screening program, transit districts and charter bus companies throughout the nation are gearing up for the new rules.

The Orange County Transportation Authority already requires bus drivers, mechanics and supervisors to take pre-employment drug tests. They also must take the tests after most accidents, and whenever probable cause is determined. The agency has more than 700 bus drivers.

JoAnn Curran, a spokeswoman for the OCTA, said that it has been satisfied with its program, but that accidents like the one near Palm Desert still strike a nerve.

“It’s the kind of thing you hope to God doesn’t happen here. You like to think your employees are drug- and alcohol-free. Safety is always our No. 1 concern,” she said.

Curran said OCTA employees rarely test positive for drug use.

Out of 87 tests of drivers who had accidents in 1991, three tested positive and were fired, she said. None of the three accidents led to major injuries, although in one the driver suffered minor injuries, and $20,000 in damage to the bus was reported.

The new federal rules are expected to force OCTA and other transit agencies to add screening tests for alcohol, as well as periodic, random tests for drugs.

Ed Gill, assistant chief counsel for the American Public Transit Assn., said the federal government is expected to propose its regulations for transit agencies by April 1 and adopt the final ones by October.

“Many (transit agencies) already have testing in place right now, but a lot don’t have random testing. That will be a big one,” Gill said.

He also said the alcohol tests probably will be much more difficult and controversial than the drug tests. “Alcohol is legal, drugs aren’t, so that represents a whole range of issues,” he said.

The nation’s transit agencies had geared up in 1989 to conduct drug-testing programs after the Department of Transportation announced new rules. But the rules were struck down in January, 1990, by a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals when the justices ruled that the department had no congressional authority to require the tests.

Curran said that drug testing is a “sensitive issue” with the unionized employees at OCTA and that new programs are negotiated in contracts. Once the new federal rules come out, “we will work with the union in defining and coming up with agreeable implementation programs,” she said.

Charter bus companies will face different rules than the transit agencies since the rules are being drafted by a separate agency, the Federal Highway Administration.

The highway agency already has drug-testing rules for bus and truck companies that cross state lines. The drivers must be tested before employment, during periodic medical exams, randomly and for reasonable cause. The employers must conduct 50 random drug tests annually for every 100 drivers. Drivers who fail the tests must be taken off the road immediately, said Tom Kozlowski, a spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration.

The new rules for intrastate commercial operations probably will be modeled after those, he said. The new rules will apply to tour operations and church and scout groups that operate buses.

Kozlowski said many charter bus operations already have some type of drug-screening program, similar to that of ATE Management and Service Co. Inc., the parent company of the firm that employed Miller.

Louis Olsen, president of ATE, said the company, which employs about 1,500 bus drivers in 26 states, screens all job applicants for drugs before employment, and conducts periodic tests when supervisors suspect drugs are being used. Olsen said the company will review and improve its policy because of last week’s accident.

“Clearly, in the face of this you go back and see what you can do differently and redouble your effort, no matter how good the efforts are,” he said.