According to data released from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) Operation Safe Driver campaign, the top three reasons warnings and citations were issued to both commercial and non-commercial vehicle drivers include speeding, failing to use a safety belt and failure to obey traffic control devices.
Of the warnings issued to commercial drivers, 20.3 percent were for speeding (versus 61.2 percent for passenger car drivers); 4.2 percent were for failure to obey traffic control devices (compared to 5.8 percent for passenger car drivers); and, 2.6 percent were for failing to use a seat belt while operating their vehicle (compared to 2.8 percent for passenger car counterparts).
Citations issued to commercial drivers followed a similar trend, with 13.7 percent for speeding, 4.6 percent for failure to obey traffic control devices and 10 percent for failing to use a seat belt while operating their vehicle. Commercial drivers were issued significantly more warnings and citations in 2010 for failing to buckle up (1,055) versus in 2009 (672).
The fourth annual Operation Safe Driver took place Oct. 17-23, when law enforcement officers nationwide pulled over nearly 53,000 commercial and passenger vehicle drivers. Operation Safe Driver was launched in 2007 by CVSA in partnership with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to address the problem of improving the behavior of all drivers operating in an unsafe manner and to initiate educational and enforcement strategies to address those exhibiting high-risk behaviors.
“CVSA’s Operation Safe Driver is targeting each and every driver, whether they drive a passenger car or a CMV, and alerting offenders that their poor driving behaviors result in lives lost,” said Stephen A. Keppler, CVSA’s executive director. “We will continue to emphasize this point, through both education and enforcement tactics, until we eliminate those driver behaviors that are specifically linked to causing crashes.”
