WASHINGTON — In a couple weeks, approximately 10,000 officers will blanket North America’s roadways for Roadcheck 2006.

From June 6-8, federal, state, provincial and local officers in the U.S. and Canada will be conducting North American Standard Inspections around the clock for 72 hours. These inspections involve a comprehensive 37-step procedure which includes items related to vehicle, driver and cargo safety. Officers also will be giving drivers educational materials on various aspects of commercial vehicle, driver and hazardous materials safety.

While OOS rates are improving, there’s lots
of room for improvement says CVSA

As has been the case the last few years, Roadcheck 2006 will also focus on enforcement and education of safety belt use among commercial drivers. Although the latest FMCSA statistics indicate an increase in seat belt use among truckers from 48 to 54 percent, this number is still far too low, says the agency. In comparison, the use rate among automobile drivers is 82 percent.

During Roadcheck 2005, 1,150 safety belt violations were documented during the three-day event, versus 755 in 2004. In all of 2005, 57,510 safety belt violations were recorded against commercial drivers.

“Roadcheck is an important reminder of the critical role these officers play every day in the health and well-being of everyone who travels the highways,” said Stephen Campbell, executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), an association of various levels of government officials responsible for the administration and enforcement of truck and bus safety laws.

“Lives are being saved because roadside inspections conducted by CVSA-certified inspectors take place every day throughout North America. The inspections conducted over the three-day event in 2005 (61,278) resulted in 15 lives saved and 266 injuries avoided.”

There are more than 3 million North American Standard roadside inspections conducted annually.

For the first time in three years, both vehicle and driver out of service rates dropped at Roadcheck 2005.

A record 60,562 inspections at 1,348 locations were performed last year. Total Vehicle OSS rates dropped from 23.9 percent in 2004 to 22.6, while driver infractions fell from 5.0 percent to 4.5 percent this year.

While brake adjustment and brake system problems are consistently the top two vehicle OOS criteria respectively, there were some signs of progress last year as brake adjustment violations fell from 30.1 percent to 29.6.