The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance inspected nearly 70,000 trucks and buses during Roadcheck 2015 held June 2 through June 4 in California and around the country. About 45,000 of those vehicles underwent scrutiny based on the North American Standard Level I guidelines. While the report released on Sept. 28 shows the number of violations is at an all-time low since the CVSA began maintaining truck safety data in 1991, there were still close to 10,000 reported violations.
The numbers indicate that 21.6 percent of the trucks inspected had out-of-service violations. This is down from 24.1 percent of trucks that were placed out of service in 2013 and 23 percent in 2014.
The most significant number of violations had to do with faulty brake systems or brake adjustments that were not in compliance. Other violations reported included more than 1,600 truck drivers with too many hours on the road, and an additional 2,439 trucks received sanctions for improper load securement. Operation Safe Driver Week is to be held the week of Oct. 18 to educate and enforce the rules of the roadways. Law enforcement agencies will focus heavily on traffic laws for all drivers with roadside inspections and regulatory compliance checks for commercial vehicles.
Truck accidents can cause catastrophic injuries to people in other vehicles that are involved, in large part due to the sheer size and weight of these commercial vehicles. A person who has been injured in such an accident caused by truck driver fatigue or negligent truck maintenance may want to meet with a personal injury attorney to determine the appropriate way to seek compensation for the damages that have been sustained.