A hiring-screening system that lets employers review an applicant's past safety record before putting them to work.

In trucking and other safety-sensitive jobs, that usually means checking government or company records for past crashes, roadside inspections, violations, license status, and sometimes drug or alcohol testing history. In the commercial driving context, people often mean the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Pre-Employment Screening Program, or PSP, which gives authorized carriers a driver's five-year crash history and three-year roadside inspection history from federal records. Employers use it to decide whether someone can safely handle a commercial vehicle, especially when bad weather, steep grades, or shutdowns on New Hampshire notch roads can turn one poor decision into a serious wreck.

Practically, a pre-employment screening program can affect who gets hired, what training is required, and whether a company later faces a negligent hiring or negligent retention claim. If a carrier ignored a pattern of safety problems and put a driver on the road anyway, that screening record may become evidence after a crash.

For an injury claim, the program does not automatically prove fault, but it can help show what the employer knew or should have known. In New Hampshire, fault is still decided under the state's modified comparative fault rule, RSA 507:7-d, which bars recovery if an injured person is more than 50% at fault. A screening record can shape that argument, though it is rarely the whole story.