On Wednesday, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) released the results from their Operation Safe Driver Week campaign.
This year, Operation Safe Driver Week took place in the U.S. and Canada on July 12 — 18 and was the CVSA’s first major enforcement effort of the year after International Roadcheck was postponed for COVID-19 concerns.
Operation Safe Driver Week is a driver-focused enforcement effort intended to cut down on dangerous driving by both passenger vehicle drivers and commercial vehicle drivers. In total, passenger vehicle drivers and commercial vehicle drivers were issued a total of 71,343 warnings and citations.
Commercial vehicle drivers were issued a total of 10,736 warnings and citations for traffic enforcement violations during Operation Safe Driver Week — which breaks down to 4,659 citations and 6,077 warnings.
This year’s Operation Safe Driver Week’s focus was on speed violations. Passenger vehicle drivers received 14,378 citations and 11,456 warnings for speed-related offenses while commercial vehicle drivers were issued 2,339 speed-related citations and 3,423 warnings. In total, 56.33% of all warnings and 50.20% of all citations given to commercial motor vehicle drivers were related to speed violations
The top five traffic enforcement citations given to commercial motor vehicle drivers during the blitz were:
- Speeding/violation of basic speed law/driving too fast for the conditions – 2,339
- Failure to use seat belt while operating commercial motor vehicle – 1,003
- Failure to obey traffic control device – 617
- Using a hand-held phone/texting – 269
- Improper lane change – 122
“Although CVSA is a commercial motor vehicle safety organization, it was important that passenger vehicle drivers were also involved in this annual week-long driver safety enforcement initiative,” said CVSA President Sgt. John Samis with the Delaware State Police. “When commercial motor vehicles and passenger vehicles collide, no matter who was at fault, the results can be catastrophic, especially for the smaller and lighter passenger vehicle. Preventing crashes from happening requires every driver – commercial and personal – to be aware of how to safely share the road with other types of vehicles.”
Citations and warnings were down from last year’s Operation Safe Driver Week, when a total of 46,752 citations and 87,624 warnings to both motorists and truckers.
The CVSA’s Brake Safety Week operation recently took place August 23 — 29. The CVSA’s International Roadcheck enforcement campaign, which was postponed in May 2020, will now take place September 9 — 11.