Speeding, distracted driving, following too closely, improper lane change, drunk or drugged driving—and other risky driving behaviors—are the focus of this summer’s Operation Safe Driver Week.
Law enforcement in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico will look for risky drivers during the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s annual safety enforcement week this July 10-16. North American enforcement officers will spend that week issuing warnings and citations to commercial and passenger vehicle drivers.
The U.S. DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently reported that 38,824 people were killed in traffic crashes nationwide in 2020—the most fatalities recorded on U.S. highways since 2007. While crashes and traffic injuries declined overall, fatal crashes increased by 6.8%.
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Speed-related fatalities increased by 17% in 2020, according to NHTSA’s report. So law enforcement will be focusing on that dangerous behavior, particularly during Operation Safe Driver Week, according to CVSA.
“The rising fatalities on our roadways are a national crisis; we cannot and must not accept these deaths as inevitable,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.
CVSA’s Operation Safe Driver Program was created to improve the driving behaviors of all drivers and reduce the number of crashes involving commercial motor vehicles on our roadways through educational and traffic enforcement strategies. Operation Safe Driver Week is supported by federal agencies in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., the motor carrier industry, and transportation safety organizations.
“This safe driving initiative and campaign focuses specifically on drivers’ actions—whether it’s something a driver did, like speeding, or something they didn’t do, such as not paying attention to the driving task,” Capt. John Broers of the South Dakota Highway Patrol and CVSA president. “This focus on drivers’ behaviors is our effort to identify and educate drivers who are operating dangerously on our roadways, with the goal of preventing crashes from occurring.”
