Operation Safe Driver Week starts

Greenbelt, Maryland (Oct. 15, 2017) – The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) Operation Safe Driver Week is this week, Oct. 15-21, 2017. Throughout the week, there will be heightened traffic safety enforcement and education aimed at combating dangerous driving behaviors by commercial motor vehicle (CMV) and passenger vehicle drivers. Enforcement personnel will identify and issue warnings and/or citations to drivers exhibiting unsafe driving behaviors on our roadways.

Unsafe driver behaviors by CMV and passenger vehicle drivers continue 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 passenger vehicles due to unsafe driving behaviors.

Examples of unsafe driver behaviors that law enforcement will be looking for 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 initiative 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 CMVs, etc. CVSA will compile jurisdictional data on the warnings and citations issued throughout the week to further understand prevalent unsafe behaviors.

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 in high crash-rate areas along major highways. Some jurisdictions may conduct targeted covert enforcement activities. Other jurisdictions may focus on specific high-risk target areas for improvement, such as traffic enforcement initiatives 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.

CVSA – in partnership with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), state, provincial, territorial member jurisdictions, local law enforcement, and the motor carrier industry – launched the Operation Safe Driver Program in 2007 to reduce the number of deaths and injuries resulting from unsafe driving behaviors.