You have about three weeks for you or your fleet's maintenance shop to make sure you truck's brakes are in proper working order because the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's annual Brake Safety Week is scheduled for Aug. 23-29.
The seven-day focused inspection and enforcement initiative aims to improve highway safety by ensuring commercial motor vehicles are operating with properly maintained and functioning braking systems.
Throughout that week, inspectors in the U.S., Canada and Mexico will conduct routine commercial motor vehicle inspections with a focus on brake systems and components. Vehicles with brake-related out-of-service violations, or any other out-of-service violations, will be removed from roadways until those violations are corrected.
In addition, inspectors will focus on drums and rotors, the emphasis for this year’s brake-safety initiative. Brake drum and rotor issues may affect a vehicle’s brake efficiency. Broken pieces of drums and rotors may become dislodged from the vehicle en route and damage other vehicles or result in injuries or fatalities to the motoring public, according to the CVSA.
During last year's Brake Safety Week, officers conducted 15,175 commercial motor vehicle inspections, and 2,296 vehicles were placed out of service (OOS) due to brake-related violations.
Earlier this year, during a one-day, unannounced inspection blitz, law enforcement officers conducted 4,021 inspections of commercial motor vehicles and restricted 574 of those vehicles from travel due to brake-related out-of-service violations.
Motor carriers and drivers are encouraged to perform thorough pre- and post-trip inspections and ensure all brake components are in proper working condition before operating their vehicles.
