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Oct. 21-28 crackdown targets all drivers
By Randy Grider
No matter whether you've driving a tractor-trailer or a Toyota Prius, law enforcement officers across the country are gearing up for an Oct. 21-28 enforcement blitz.
The weeklong Operation Safe Driver 2007, sponsored by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, is dedicated to reducing fatalities and injuries resulting from reckless driving around trucks, including cutting them off, tailgating them and speeding around them.
Law-enforcement officers will ride along in trucks, watching for violations by four-wheelers and truckers alike, then will call ahead to patrol units that will stop the violators.
Not all stops will result in tickets. Many violators simply will be handed brochures explaining many of the dangerous maneuvers that automobile drivers commonly commit around trucks.
The CVSA staged an Oct. 22 launch event for Operation Safe Driver at the American Trucking Associations annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. The event featured a NASCAR-style Chevrolet Impala with a large "88%" decal -- a reference to FMCSA's 2006 Large Truck Causation Study, which found that drivers' actions or inactions, both truckers and four-wheelers, accounted for 88 percent of all collisions between trucks and passenger cars.
"Nearly nine of every 10 accidents happen because a driver makes the wrong decision,” said FMCSA Administrator John Hill.
The study also found that 56 percent of the crashes were the fault of the four-wheeler, 44 percent the fault of the trucker.
Many states plan educational events during the week. The Oregon Department of Transportation, for example, will hold an Oct. 23-25 open house from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day at the Woodburn Port of Entry on Interstate 5 southbound, just north of Woodburn. Drivers and carrier officials are invited to stop in for refreshments and visit with representatives from the Oregon Trucking Association, FMCSA, ODOT, law enforcement and safety organizations. Drivers can learn about truck safety regulations, winter driving tips and ODOT’s TripCheck travel information system.
“The first step in fixing a problem is admitting we have one,” said CVSA Executive Director Stephen Campbell. “Driving is a privilege and not a right. We want to educate everyone on the roadways.” |
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