The aftermath of an accident in the workplace or on a job site can be a scary time for a business. Heartbeats race not only for the people directly involved but for management as well. Employers can have a flurry of questions going through their minds as they assess the damage. Did the employee injure themselves? Was it someone else’s fault? Was there damage to company assets or property? Will worker’s compensation come into play? When safety ratings and insurance rates come into play, how will this affect the bottom line?

Even in emotional moments, you owe it to your business, your staff, and yourself to follow all proper protocols regarding safety and responsibility at work. If an employee has been involved in an accident on the job and you suspect the involvement of drugs and alcohol, you must require an immediate drug test to determine whether the employee was under the influence on the job. Alcohol, a depressant of the central nervous system, is a common cause of accidents. As such, you need to know if it was present in the employee’s body, as this is key to determining compensation and liability. In the wake of a serious incident, here’s what to know about post-accident drug testing.

Short Time Frame

Following an accident on the job, it’s imperative to move as quickly as possible toward performing a drug test. Because the body metabolizes different drugs at different rates, they all have varying windows of detection. To protect against any of those windows closing early, one of the most important things to know about post-accident drug testing is that you must request and receive a drug test sample as soon as possible. The detection time for a urine alcohol test is only 1 to eight hours. Most other drugs will be detectable for only about 1 to 3 days post-accident. Marijuana, however, will remain detectable for between 2 to 4 weeks. In most cases, a post-accident drug test will entail procuring a sample before the end of the workday.

Put Your Employee on the Bench

Speaking of the workday, be prepared to work shorthanded following the accident. When employees are involved in an accident that requires a post-accident drug test, hold them out of work until you receive the sample for drug testing. Following that, you may choose to keep an involved employee on leave until you receive the results of the test—usually within one to three business days.

Different Testing Options

It’s clear that if you have a worker who has been involved in an accident that involves injury or property damage, you must require an immediate drug test. Which test you choose to administer, however, depends on how much information you are looking to collect. Although urinalysis usually detects alcohol within one to eight hours of ingestion, if you suspect long-term alcohol use is a contributing factor to the accident, you have options. An EtG hair test or ETG nail bed test can detect drug and alcohol use within a 90-day window.