The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) has designated Operation Safe Driver Week - July 14-20 - to increase speed enforcement on North America’s highways. During the week, law enforcement is expected to take a more active approach on speeding, promoting the message: “Late won’t kill you, speeding will.”
For more than two decades, speeding has been involved in nearly one-third of all motor vehicle fatalities, which continues to increase year over year. During the week long Operation, citations will be given to violators to show the importance of obeying speed limits and to deter drivers from speeding in the future.
Law enforcement officers will be looking for other dangerous driving behaviors in both cars and trucks as well, including: Distracted driving, or the use of a hand-held cell phone, texting and other distractions that take a driver’s eyes off of the road; failure to use a seatbelt; following too closely; road rage; improper lane changes; reckless driving; failure to obey traffic control devices and evidence of drunk or drugged driving.
Prepare your commercial vehicle drivers
Driving is the leading cause of occupational fatalities in the U.S. - or 25% of work-related deaths annually - according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).1 Even with additional safety devices being placed in new commercial vehicles, this number continues to grow. To maintain a safe fleet with a good speeding record year-round, train your drivers to:
- Take the extra time to conduct thorough pre trip inspections to make sure that their vehicles are free of violations during this time period.
- Ensure that their safety equipment is in good operating order, all of their lights are working
- Be prepared to discuss hours of service regulations with law enforcement.
- Be extra courteous on the roadways during this week to demonstrate to all drivers how roadways can be safely shared by all
In past years, the CVSA Operation has been very effective in deterring negative driver behavior via inspections, citations and warnings. During last year’s Operation Safe Driver Week, officers pulled over or inspected more than 42,000 commercial vehicle drivers. They issued more than 10,700 citations and more than 29,900 warnings for unsafe driving violations. The top five 2018 citations issued were for: State and local law violations, speeding, failure to use a seat belt, failure to obey a traffic control device and using a handheld phone.
Contact your HUB Transportation Fleet Specialist to find out how you can reduce your risk and keep your drivers safe during Operation Safe Driver Week and every week of the year.
1https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/motorvehicle/resources/crashdata/facts.html