A sewage commission\u2019s landscaper was subject to random drug screens because the equipment he operated needed unimpaired operators. Mollo v. Passaic Valley Sewerage Comm’rs, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121009 (D. N.J. December 30, 2009):<\/p>\n
On the other side of the calculus, the government’s interest in suspicionless drug testing of Landscapers like Mollo is weighty, since landscaping duties at the PVSC involves the use of and close contact with machinery that can pose a danger to other employees and the public, and because Mollo sometimes performed his job duties alone and without supervision.<\/p>\n
Although the main thrust of Mollo’s job duties was not to safeguard the public, like those of police officers, Policeman’s Benevolent Ass’n, 850 F.2d at 135, or firefighters, Wilcher, 139 F.3d at 374-75, Mollo did “discharge duties fraught with such risks of injury to others that even a momentary lapse of attention can have disastrous consequences.” See Skinner, 489 U.S. at 628. Mollo drove trucks throughout the facility and operated other vehicles, like snow plows. As the Southern District of New York has stated, “[l]ike a gun, a motor vehicle on a public motorway can instantly become a deadly instrument if misused.” Burka v. New York City Transit Authority, 739 F. Supp. 814, 822 (S.D.N.Y. 1990). Although Mollo did not customarily operate vehicles on public roadways, an impaired Landscaper driving snow plows or trucks on the extensive roadways of the PVSC facility poses a substantial risk of danger to co-workers or business invitees who may be on or near the facility’s roadways.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Landscapers are required to work in the close vicinity of a cryogenic plant, electrical substation, clarifiers, and Archimedes screw pumps. Each poses a unique risk to the unwary Landscaper, as well as to co-workers and the public. A Landscaper could be crushed by or drown in the clarifiers or Archimedes screw pumps, or electrocute himself if exposed to “buss work” outside of the electrical substation. A Landscaper who inadvertently created a spark or flame near the stored oxygen in the cryogenic plant could cause an explosion, resulting in death or injury to any person in the vicinity. Major damage to the facility would interrupt waste treatment service for PVSC’s 1.3 million customers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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