U.S. Relieves Aide Who Ran Drug Tests In Amtrak Crash
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LEAD: The Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating reports of irregularities at its drug and alcohol testing unit in Oklahoma City, has relieved the unit supervisor pending the outcome of the investigation, agency employees familiar with the situation said today. The Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating reports of irregularities at its drug and alcohol testing unit in Oklahoma City, has relieved the unit supervisor pending the outcome of the investigation, agency employees familiar with the situation said today. The F.A.A. employees said the supervisor, Delbert J. Lacefield, has been ”temporarily detailed” to a special project. Some of Dr. Lacefield’s actions in connection with the Jan. 4 Amtrak crash that killed 16 people near Baltimore are being investigated by the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General. Until he was relieved, Dr. Lacefield was supervisor of the agency’s forensic toxicology research unit, which until recently analyzed urine and blood samples submitted by airlines and railroads when there was an accident that required testing for drugs or alcohol. People in the agency said he had now been assigned to a special project within the Civil Aeromedical Institute, a division of the F.A.A. that embraces the testing facility that Dr. Lacefield has headed. The nature of the special project was not identified. Dr. Lacefield, who has been with the F.A.A. for 20 years, was reached by telephone today in Oklahoma City but he would not discuss his situation. He referred all questions to the F.A.A. public affairs office, which had no comment. The Inspector General’s office began examining Dr. Lacefield’s work earlier this month. Department employees said the investigation was begun after a co-worker asserted that there was no documentation to support Dr. Lacefield’s finding that THC, the stimulant in marijuana, was present in the blood of the two crew members involved in the Amtrak accident. At the time the investigation was announced, Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole announced that the Civil Aeromedical Institute would no long perform drug and alcohol tests for the Federal Railroad Administration, also a division of the Department of Transportation. A day later, the F.A.A. said it would discontinue use of the small laboratory headed by Dr. Lacefield to conduct testing related to aviation accidents, also pending the outcome of the Inspector General’s report and a review of the lab’s operations by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Source : query.nytimes.com |