46,752 citations issued during driver-focused blitz
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) has released results from this year’s Operation Safe Driver Week enforcement effort.
This year, Operation Safe Driver Week took place from July 14 — 20 throughout the U.S. and Canada. During the enforcement blitz, law enforcement officers were on the lookout for unsafe driving violations committed by both passenger and commercial vehicle drivers.
During Operation Safe Driver Week, police issued 46,752 citations and 87,624 warnings to drivers.
This year’s area of special emphasis was speeding/driving too fast for conditions. Officers issued a total of 17,556 total citations to all drivers — with 16,102 citations going to passenger vehicle drivers and 1,454 citations going to commercial vehicle drivers.
You can view the top 10 violations for both commercial vehicle drivers and passenger vehicle drivers below.
| CMV DRIVERS | |||
| Description | Citations | Warnings | |
| 1 | Speeding/violation of basic speed law/driving too fast for the conditions | 1,454 | 2,126 |
| 2 | Failure to wear a seatbelt | 954 | 586 |
| 3 | Failure to obey a traffic control device | 426 | 871 |
| 4 | Using a handheld phone/texting | 249 | 170 |
| 5 | Improper lane change | 92 | 194 |
| 6 | Following too closely | 57 | 143 |
| 7 | Possession/use/under influence of alcohol and/or drugs | 55 | 18 |
| 8 | Improper passing | 41 | 30 |
| 9 | Inattentive, careless and/or reckless driving | 32 | 55 |
| 10 | Operating CMV while ill or fatigued | 25 | 45 |
| PASSENGER VEHICLE DRIVERS | |||
| Description | Citations | Warnings | |
| 1 | Speeding/violation of basic speed law/driving too fast for the conditions | 16,102 | 21,001 |
| 2 | Failure to wear a seatbelt | 1,794 | 773 |
| 3 | Failure to obey traffic control device | 540 | 1,063 |
| 4 | Inattentive, careless and/or reckless driving | 517 | 484 |
| 5 | Possession/use/under influence of alcohol and/or drugs | 503 | 2 |
| 6 | Using a handheld phone/texting | 416 | 400 |
| 7 | Improper lane change | 352 | 1,226 |
| 8 | Failure to yield right of way | 297 | 198 |
| 9 | Improper passing | 280 | 723 |
| 10 | Following too closely | 188 | 853 |
“Although CVSA is an organization focused on commercial motor vehicle safety, we know that if we want to prevent crashes involving commercial motor vehicles and passenger vehicles, it’s important that we focus on bothtypes of vehicles and drivers,” said CVSA President Chief Jay Thompson with the Arkansas Highway Police. “Operation Safe Driver Week is our effort to focus on driver behaviors, the leading cause of crashes. We hope that contact with law enforcement during this traffic safety initiative helps to combat dangerous driver behaviors in the future, ultimately making our roadways safer.”
During last year’s Operation Safe Driver Week, 57,405 citations were issued to both CMV drivers and passenger vehicle drivers.