CVSA releases Operation Safe Driver Week 2021 results

Law enforcement officers pulled over 28,148 commercial motor vehicles and 17,910 passenger vehicles during Operation Safe Driver Week, writing 16,863 tickets and issuing 10,486 warnings.

Sponsored by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, Operation Safe Driver ran from July 11-17 in participating jurisdictions in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. This year’s campaign placed special enforcement emphasis on speeding, which was also the most common violation for passenger vehicle and commercial drivers.

Officers issued 11,039 citations and 5,478 warnings for speeding violations, with 9,349 citations and 2,929 warnings for speed-related offenses cited to passenger vehicle drivers, and 1,690 speed-related citations and 2,549 warnings to commercial motor vehicle drivers.

CVSA says the goal of Operation Safe Driver Week is to dissuade dangerous driving behaviors through interactions between drivers engaging in risky driving behaviors and law enforcement officers, and through a heightened law enforcement presence on our roadways.

Failure to wear a seat belt was the second-most common offense, for both passenger vehicle and commercial drivers.

Speeding and seat belt use violations were the two most common offenses in the U.S. and Canada. The top violation in Mexico for commercial operators was failure to wear a seat belt.

The five most common offenses during Operation Safe Driver Week:

• Speeding/basic speed law/driving too fast for conditions.
• Failure to use a seat belt.
• Texting/distracted driving/ using a handheld phone.
• Failure to obey traffic control device.
• Improper lane change.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration also participated in this year’s Operation Safe Driver Week. The agency ran an investigative event parallel to Operation Safe Driver Week roadside activities targeting motor carriers with a history of crashes and unsafe driving behavior.

FMCSA’s investigative event ran June 7-16, with participation from all its divisions. The agency prioritized moderate-risk and high-risk carriers for remote on-site and off-site investigations.

FMCSA field staff completed 90 high-risk and 201 moderate-risk carrier investigations, resulting in 64 conditional ratings and 30 unsatisfactory ratings. Three driver notices of claim are planned, 21 carriers entered the denial of access process, 10 out-of-service orders were issued, and one pattern of safety violations case is under review. Out of 291 investigations, nine resulted in enforcement for the violation of CFR 392.2 – unsafe driving.

A complete breakdown of Operation Safe Driver Week statistics can be found at CVSA’s website. LL