Operation Safe Driver Week set for mid-July

When Operation Safe Driver Week commences July 10-16, the focus will be on speeding.

Highway troopers will step up enforcement activities for those seven days. Federal agencies in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. will be involved in the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s Operation Safe Driver Program. They will be issuing warnings and citations to commercial motor vehicle and passenger vehicle drivers engaging in unsafe driving behaviors, such as speeding, distracted driving, following too closely, improper lane change, and drunk or drugged driving.

The program focuses particularly on the behavior of drivers.

The reason for the emphasis on speeding-related activities is found in the data from the latest annual traffic crash report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to a news release. The report showed that 38,824 lives were lost in traffic crashes nationwide in 2020. That is the highest number of fatalities since 2007. Although the number of crashes and traffic injuries declined overall, fatal crashes increased by 6.8%.

Speeding has been a factor in more than a quarter of crash deaths since 2008, the CVSA reports online.

“The rising fatalities on our roadways are a national crisis; we cannot and must not accept these deaths as inevitable,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in the news release.

Not mentioned in the news release was that while traffic deaths were up overall in 2020, the fatality rate for large truck-involved crashes was down.

Last year, 28,148 commercial motor vehicles and 17,910 passenger vehicles were pulled over during Operation Safe Driver Week. There were 16,863 tickets written and 10,486 warnings issued. Speeding was the most common offense, according to data released last fall.

This enforcement blitz is sponsored by CVSA in partnership with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and with support from the motor carrier industry and transportation safety organizations. LL