Oregon state inspector chats with driver during inspection.A recent inspection of commercial truck drivers’ log books placed 22 percent of drivers out of service, the Oregon Department of Transportation Motor Carrier Division said.
ODOT placed 231 drivers out of service from Oct. 17 through 22 in log book checks at several inspection sites on major Oregon highways. The inspections also found safety equipment violations that placed 49 vehicles out of service.
These 1,037 driver and vehicle inspections resulted in 263 violations that placed the driver or vehicle out of service.
Placing a driver out of service means the operator can’t drive until taking a mandatory rest break or correcting safety violations.
Out of 1,155 crashes involving trucks in Oregon in 2010, the truck driver was determined to be at fault in 536 of those incidents. A truck mechanical problem caused 38 of those incidents.
During a multi-day commercial vehicle driver inspection operation Aug. 30 to Sept. 3, 810 inspections resulted in 33 percent of drivers placed out of service for safety violations. That compared with the 27 percent average rate for a similar exercise in July, and 26 percent from 2010 inspections.
The national driver out-of-service rate is about 6 percent.
