TORONTO — A surprise brake check blitz in May by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) and its on-road enforcement partners across North America netted several hundred trucks with faulty brakes.

Forty-five states and provinces in the U.S. and Canada participated in the annual 12-hour surprise inspection on May 7, 2008. Enforcement was on the lookout for a variety of brake related defects and was able to pull non-compliant trucks off the road.

As the results show, brake related problems on the highway are still not going away.

Officers inspected 11,908 vehicles (93,751 brakes). Out of those, 9.9 percent of vehicles placed out of service for brake adjustment defects; 8.3 percent were placed OSS for brake component defects; and 15.8 percent were parked for other brake related defects.

Also, 9.4 percent of brakes with manual brake adjusters placed out of service, while 3.8 percent of brakes with self-adjusting brake adjusters were deemed OOS.

Nearly 10% of trucks are placed OOS for brake adjustment defects

“Poorly adjusted or defective air brakes reduce the braking capacity of large vehicles and further increase their stopping distance, said CVSA’s Executive Director Stephen F. Campbell. “Even under ideal conditions, the stopping distance of commercial vehicles can be twice as far as that of cars and other smaller vehicles. Having defective brakes increases the risk to the driver and any passenger, as well as to others traveling the roads."

Campbell said a significant problem in recent years continues to be the practice of manually adjusting self-adjusting brake adjusters. "If you have a brake that is over-stroking and it has a self-adjusting (automatic) brake adjuster, you more than likely have a problem with the brake or the adjuster. If you readjust it, you aren’t fixing the underlying problem," he says.

With the help of industry, Operation Air Brake intends to reduce the number of highway crashes caused by faulty braking systems on commercial vehicles by conducting roadside inspections and educating drivers, mechanics and others on the importance of proper brake inspection, maintenance and operation.