Trucking news and briefs for Wednesday, April 10, 2024:
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, the body that helps annually update out-of-service criteria, the agenda at Roadcheck and more, has announced July 7-13 for this year’s Operation Safe Driver Week, which it calls "a safe-driving enforcement and outreach initiative aimed at improving driving behaviors through educational and traffic-enforcement strategies and driver interactions with law enforcement."
During Operation Safe Driver Week, law enforcement in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. will look out for commercial motor vehicle drivers and passenger vehicle drivers "engaging in unsafe driving behaviors, such as speeding, distracted driving, following too closely, drunk or drugged driving, etc," the group said.
"Drivers engaging in such behaviors will be pulled over by law enforcement and may be issued a warning or citation," it warned.
This year's blitz will target reckless, careless or dangerous driving. "Any person who drives a vehicle in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property is driving recklessly," CVSA said. "Careless/dangerous driving is defined as operating a vehicle without due care and attention or reasonable consideration for other motorists or people on the road."
CVSA cited the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as saying communication and outreach help safety programs, but that alone is "unlikely to have an effect unless they are tied to vigorous enforcement."
CVSA believes the enforcement effort can fill that role, the group noted. "Operation Safe Driver Week aims to improve the safety of our roadways through proactive driver safety outreach and education, and by addressing unsafe driving behaviors through responsive traffic enforcement when drivers are identified engaging in dangerous driving behaviors on our roadways."
