Eight Metrobus drivers failed drug and alcohol tests after accidents, according to the most recent year of data from the transit agency.
And Metrobus drivers were more likely to fail the tests than other Metro employees in the past five years, according to an Examiner analysis of data current through May.
Forty-four percent of the positive tests in the past five years have been among bus drivers, though the approximately 2,400 bus operators represent 31 percent of all the employees required to be tested under federal rules. Metro gives drug tests randomly, due to suspicions and after every accident.
It is not clear what happened to the drivers who flunked the tests — or whether anyone was injured in the accidents.
Jackie Jeter, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 that represents drivers, said she did not condone the use of drugs or alcohol, especially among workers who operate vehicles. But she said the positive tests didn’t represent the actions of most drivers.
“The percentage of people you are talking about is a very small percentage of the population,” she said. “These people have chosen for whatever reason to throw their careers away.”
Indeed, Metrobus operators have tested positive 13 times out of 1,124 tests administered after accidents in five years.
Overall, less than 1 percent of Metro employees test positive out of more than 2,500 tests given each year. That falls within the national violation rates among public transit agencies, according to Federal Transit Administration spokesman Paul Griffo.
Transit operators nationwide had the highest rate of positive drug tests in 2007, according to an FTA report released this year, and the second-highest rates for positive alcohol tests among employee categories.
In five years of data provided to The Examiner under public record laws, Metro had 129 positive tests out of more than 16,000 tests given. Metrobus drivers had 57 of those positive tests. Train operators failed at much lower rates, with five positive tests in the five years ending June 1, 2009.
Seven station managers also tested positive in the past five years, four of them caught by random drug tests. Even one training and safety instructor tested positive in a random test.
“Anytime an employee fails a drug or alcohol test, we are disappointed,” said Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel. “If that does occur, under our current work rules, we will work with that employee to get the assistance that he or she needs. Metro is a family, and we care about the welfare and safety of our employees.”
Metrobus drivers have been in the spotlight this year after several got into trouble. One driver was fired for slugging a cop dressed as McGruff the Crime Dog, another was canned after he was charged with kidnapping a passenger, and a third lost her job after she was charged with driving without a valid license following a bus crash.
It is not clear whether any of them had drugs or alcohol in their systems, as the agency does not release the names of those who test positive.
Metro officials did say that a driver whose bus hit a jogger last month had passed her drug and alcohol tests. She was fired after the agency said she failed to do everything she could to avoid the runner.
Metro spokeswoman Cathy Asato said Wednesday the agency was waiting for the results of tests from a Metrobus driver who struck and killed a 61-year-old woman in Northeast D.C. this week.
