OTTAWA — More than 80 percent of trucks and 97 percent of drivers stopped during this year’s CVSA Roadcheck blitz passed their safety fitness inspections.

Over the three-day event in June, 7590 commercial trucks and drivers at 132 sites in Canada underwent full inspection for mechanical and driver fitness. Of those, 6,159 vehicles and all but a couple hundred drivers successfully passed stringent Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance inspections.

Though, the actual pass rate arguably could be considered much higher since the figures do not include vehicles waved through and automatically considered ‘passed’ due to the presence of a recent valid CVSA decal.

In total, 1,431 trucks, 30 passenger-carrying vehicles and 226 drivers were placed out of service for various defects and violations. Such infractions can include something as simple as a rear signal light not working to the faulty steering or brakes.

In many cases, drivers are able to make the necessary adjustments on site, are re-inspected and continue on their way.

The 18.9 percent truck OOS rate in 2011 improves on the 20.3 percent rate from 2010, while the number of OOS drivers remained relatively flat (2.7 to 2.9 percent).

"This year’s average vehicle out-of-service rate … continues an overall downward trend in the national OOS rate over the past several years," states the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, adding that, once again, brake-related defects continue to account for close to half of all OOS violations.

Provincially, most regions were in line with the national average or improved on last year’s OOS rates.

Ontario, where the most trucks are inspected (3,304), improved to 18.1 percent from 21 percent in 2010.

Quebec, the second-most checked jurisdiction (923 trucks), continues to perform remarkably well, scoring a 13-percent OOS rate and a nation-wide lowest driver OOS score of just 0.4 percent.

With the exception of Saskatchewan, the OOS rate for both trucks and drivers remains higher in the western provinces, although  B.C. improved on last year’s numbers (22% from 24.6% for trucks and 4.8% from 5.2% for drivers). Alberta’s rate edged up on both counts, however, to 25.8 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively.

At 18 percent, Saskatchewan was the only one of the four provinces to come in under the national average.

New Brunswick, which had the highest truck OOS rate just two years ago at 28 percent, continued to drop to 19.4 — from 20 percent last year.

Newfoundland, which hovers around the national average at 19.9 percent for truck safety, did have a comparably high driver OOS score compared to all other provinces (8.3% with 517 trucks checked).

See the full provincial scores here.

Roadcheck 2011 was planned and carried out as a joint effort across North America involving the U.S. states and their relevant enforcement agencies, the Canadian provinces and territories, CVSA International, CCMTA, as well as other industry partners.