The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) recently conducted its 30th annual International Roadcheck and found that almost a quarter of the vehicles inspected as part of the event violated safety standards.
The event, held in June, saw certified commercial motor vehicle inspectors from the US, Canada, and Mexico conduct more than 62,000 safety inspections (about 54,000 of those inspections in the US alone) of both vehicles and drivers over the span of three days.
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“This year, we’re celebrating 30 years of the International Roadcheck Program,” said CVSA president Julius Debuschewitz. “When this program started in 1988, the goal of International Roadcheck was to conduct inspections to identify and remove unsafe commercial motor vehicles and/or drivers from our roadways. Thirty years and 1.5 million inspections later, the International Roadcheck enforcement initiative is still going strong, thanks to the more than 13,000 inspectors who work hard every day to reduce the number of crashes, injuries and fatalities on our roadways.”
Regulators found that 23% (9,398) of the large trucks participating in the check (a total of 40,944) did not pass Level 1 inspection standards. The areas in which vehicles failed particular safety standards included (but were not limited to):
- Brake system (26.9% of vehicles)
- Cargo securement (15.7%)
- Tire and tread condition (15.1%)
- Brake adjustment (14.5%)
- Lighting devices (11.6%)
- Suspensions (4.7%)
- Steering mechanisms (2.3%)
- Frames (1.0%)
- Coupling devices (0.8%)
- Fuel systems (0.6%)
- Driveline/Driveshaft (0.2%)
- Exhaust systems (0.2%)
The vehicles that failed the standards were subsequently placed out of service after being deemed unsafe for the road.
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