Operation Safe Driver Enforcement Blitz Begins Soon!

Operation Safe Driver Week is scheduled to kick off Sunday, October 19 and runs through October 24.

During Operation Safe Driver Week, law enforcement agencies throughout North America “will engage in heightened traffic safety enforcement and education aimed at unsafe driving behaviors by both commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers and car drivers during Operation Safe Driver Week,” CSVA states.

Drivers should expect an increase in roadside inspections and  seatbelt enforcement.

Operation Safe Driver Week is a collaboration between the FMCSA and the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance. (CVSA).

“Operation Safe Driver continues to increase its impact each year in targeting problem behaviors by all drivers, whether they drive a passenger car or a CMV, and by taking action on those who need it,” said Sgt. Thomas Fuller from the New York State Police, CVSA’s President. “We will continue to grow our enforcement and outreach efforts until we can eliminate those driving behaviors that have been shown to cause or contribute to crashes involving large trucks and buses. The outreach efforts clearly demonstrate the value of partnerships between government and industry in helping to further deliver on our key safe driving messages.”

In addition to enforcement, officers are tasked with educating drivers.

According to the CVSA, nearly 4,000 people are killed each year in truck and bus crashes.

Operation Safe Driver was developed to help cut down on the number of deaths from crashes involving trucks, buses and cars.

Operation Safe Driver 2013 results: 

According to the CVSA, 74,765 commercial and passenger vehicle drivers were pulled over during the CVSA’s 2013 Operation Safe Driver week, nearly three times the number of vehicles that were pulled over during the 2012 Safe Driver week.

“This year, 29,048 CMV traffic enforcement contacts were made; the total was 20,398 in 2012. Non-CMV traffic enforcement contacts totaled 45,717 in 2013; there were 6,089 in 2012. Roadside inspections totaled 44,882 in 2013 versus 36,221 in 2012,” CVSA said in a press release.

Operation Safe Driver is a week-long campaign.  Last year’s Operation Safe Driver ran October 20-26, 2013.

6,174 law enforcement officials from 1,686 locations participated in the campaign.

The CVSA said that officers found that car drivers “continue to speed significantly more so than commercial vehicles.”

-Passenger vehicle drivers were issued a warning or citation for speeding 53% of the time, verses 7.3% of commercial drivers!

The top three citations issued were for speeding, failing to use a seat belt and failing to obey traffic control devices.

From CVSA:

The speeding numbers revealed the following:

• The percentage of warnings and citations per contact to CMV drivers for speeding decreased from 10.8% in 2012 to 7.3% in 2013.
• The percentage of warning and citations issued to passenger car drivers for speeding decreased from 56.3% to 56.0% in 2013.

The results also show a decrease in the number of warnings and citations for failure to use seat belts for commercial vehicle and passenger car drivers:

• For CMV drivers, the percentage dropped from 3.8% in 2012 to 2.9% in 2013.
• For passenger car drivers, the percentage dropped from 5.1% in 2012 vs. 2.6% in 2013.

“Highly visible traffic enforcement efforts like Operation Safe Driver save lives and we are proud to partner with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance to crack down on distracted driving and other dangerous driving behaviors,” said Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator Anne S. Ferro.

Operation Safe Driver was launched in 2007 by CVSA, in partnership with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), to address the problem of improving the behavior of all drivers operating in an unsafe manner — either by, in, or around commercial vehicles — and to initiate educational and enforcement strategies to address those exhibiting high-risk behaviors.

CVSA is an international not-for-profit organization comprised of local, state, provincial, territorial and federal motor carrier safety officials and industry representatives from the United States, Canada and Mexico. Our mission is to promote commercial motor vehicle safety and security by providing leadership to enforcement, industry and policy makers. In addition, CVSA has several hundred associate members who are committed to helping the Alliance achieve its goals; uniformity, compatibility and reciprocity of commercial vehicle inspections, and enforcement activities throughout North America by individuals dedicated to highway safety and security. For more on CVSA visithttp://www.cvsa.org.

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