While the nationwide Roadcheck safety-enforcement effort is underway through today, the Pennsylvania State Police has just reported on its own special-enforcement action against truckers, held on June 1. In the Keystone State, state police placed 107 trucks and 72 commercial drivers out of service during that one-day enforcement effort that focused on seatbelt use and driver fatigue, State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan has announced.
Dubbed Operation SAFE (Seat Belt and Fatigue Enforcement) was conducted across the state that day by motor carrier enforcement teams. "According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, more than 750 people die and 20,000 others are injured each year in crashes in the United States involving fatigued commercial vehicle drivers," Noonan said. "In addition, federal statistics show that almost half of all commercial vehicle drivers killed in crashes are not wearing a seat belt."
(See video on the importance of inspections)
The enforcement teams focused their attention on seat belt use by truckers and examined hours of service logs and other required documentation, Noonan explained.
During the enforcement effort, he said state police teams inspected 1,588 commercial vehicles, resulting in 776 traffic citations and 1,078 written warnings. According to Noonan, 51%, 51%t of the truck inspections found at least one violation of federal motor carrier safety regulations.
"Our personnel issued 107 traffic citations to commercial drivers not wearing their seatbelts and placed 57 drivers out of service for duty-status violations," he added.
