Make a note in your calendar and set a notification in your smartphone, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s Operation Safe Driver Week is July 15-21.
During that time, traffic safety personnel will be looking for unsafe driving by commercial motor vehicle drivers and passenger vehicle drivers. Those behaviors include, but are not limited to:
- speeding
- distracted driving
- texting
- failure to use a seatbelt
- following too closely
- improper lane change
- failure to obey traffic control devices
The CVSA says unsafe driver behaviors like these continue to be the leading cause of crashes. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s “Large Truck Crash Causation Study” cites driver behavior as the critical reason for more than 88 percent of large truck crashes and 93 percent of passenger vehicle crashes.
Operation Safe Driver Week is sponsored by CVSA, in partnership with the FMCSA with support from industry, law enforcement and transportation safety organizations across North America.
CVSA’s annual International Roadcheck is June 5-7. During that time inspectors will primarily conduct the North American Standard Level I Inspection, a 37-step procedure that includes an examination of both driver operating requirements and vehicle mechanical fitness. But, with the federal electronic logging device mandate now in effect, law enforcement officers will be looking closely at drivers’ hours-of-service records too.
