The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) Operation Safe Driver Week is this week, Oct. 16-22, 2016. Throughout the week, there will be heightened traffic safety enforcement and education aimed at combating unsafe driving behaviors by commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers and passenger-vehicle (car) drivers.
Unsafe driver behaviors by CMV drivers and passenger-vehicle drivers continues to be the leading cause of crashes. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) “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. CVSA’s Operation Safe Driver program was created to help reduce the number of crashes, deaths and injuries involving large trucks, buses and cars due to unsafe driving behaviors.
Examples of unsafe driver behaviors that law enforcement will be tracking throughout Operation Safe Driver Week are speeding, failure to use a seatbelt while operating a CMV or in a passenger vehicle, distracted driving, failure to obey traffic control devices, improper lane change, etc. This enforcement blitz focuses not only on CMV drivers but also on passenger-vehicle drivers who are operating unsafely around large trucks and buses, such as traveling too closely, aggressive driving, cutting off commercial motor vehicles, etc.
Each participating jurisdiction will focus enforcement and education on its relevant problem areas related to unsafe driver behaviors as part of Operation Safe Driver Week. For example, a jurisdiction may conduct high-visibility traffic enforcement on CMV and passenger-vehicle drivers in high crash-rate areas along major highways. Some jurisdictions may employ covert enforcement search and identification efforts. Or some jurisdictions may focus on specific target areas for improvement such as driver traffic enforcement around work zones.
To find out about Operation Safe Driver Week enforcement events going on in your area, contact the agency/department responsible for overseeing commercial motor vehicle safety within your jurisdiction.
Operation Safe Driver Week is sponsored by CVSA, in partnership with FMCSA and with support from industry and transportation safety organizations, and aims to help improve the behavior of all drivers operating in an unsafe manner – either by or around commercial motor vehicles – and to initiate educational and traffic enforcement strategies to address those exhibiting high-risk behaviors.