Truckers receive almost 39,000 warnings, citations during Safe Driver Week

Updated Dec 16, 2017

Truck drivers received 38,878 citations and warnings during the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance‘s Operation Safe Driver Week, held Oct. 15-21. Passenger vehicle drivers received 20,315 citations and warnings.

Operation Safe Driver Week is an annual nationwide enforcement effort intended to increase traffic safety enforcement and educate the motorists.

The top five warnings/citations issued to commercial vehicle drivers were:

  • State/Local moving violations: 84.2 percent
  • Speeding: 7.4 percent
  • Failure to use seat belt: 2.6 percent
  • Failure to obey traffic control device: 2.5 percent
  • Using a handheld phone: 0.8 percent

The top five warnings/citations for passenger vehicle drivers were: 

  • Speeding: 43.5 percent
  • State/Local moving violations: 36.2 percent
  • Failure to use seat belt: 9.4 percent
  • Failure to obey traffic control device: 2.3 percent
  • Improper lane change: 1.5 percent

Other matters of note from the enforcement effort include:

  • 30,714 warnings and 8,164 citations were recorded for truck drivers.
  • Less than one percent of warnings and citations for truck drivers (0.6 percent) and passenger vehicle drivers (0.9 percent) were for following too closely.
  • 16 truck drivers were issued a warning or citation for using/equipping a truck with a radar detector.
  • 19 truck drivers were issued a citation for driving while ill or fatigued; 86 truck drivers received a warning.

“Countless lives are tragically lost on our roadways due to unsafe, risky, inattentive or careless acts by drivers,” said CVSA Executive Director Collin Mooney. “In fact, driver behavior is often the most important factor in crashes. Operation Safe Driver Week raises awareness about safe driver operations in and around trucks and buses.”