12% of Vehicles Inspected Placed Out-of-Service

An officer performs an inspection during a previous Brake Safety Week. (CVSA)

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Commercial vehicle inspectors put 12% of the 43,565 inspected commercial motor vehicles out-of-service for brake-related violations during Brake Safety Week Aug. 23-29, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance said Oct. 27.

Brake Safety Week is part of CVSA’s Operation Airbrake program, in partnership with the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, and Mexico’s National Guard and the Ministry of Communications and Transportation.

In all, inspectors from Canada, Mexico and the U.S. removed 5,156 commercial motor vehicles from roadways due to brake violations during the weeklong inspection and special enforcement event that focused specifically on reducing brake-related crashes by conducting inspections and identifying and removing unsafe commercial motor vehicles from roadways.

During this year's #BrakeSafetyWeek, 35,778 inspections were conducted in the U.S. 4,565 vehicles (13%) were placed out of service for brake-related violations. View the full results. https://t.co/I1XvfqZyJP pic.twitter.com/LrOQWvi2xl — CVSA (@CVSA) October 28, 2020

A total of 53 jurisdictions — 45 from the United States — participated in this year’s brake event, which is a voluntary inspection, enforcement and outreach initiative. CVSA said that in light of the coronavirus pandemic, jurisdictions that elected to participate in the operation conducted inspections following each agency’s health and safety protocols and precautions in consideration of the health and well-being of both inspectors and drivers.

In the United States, 35,778 inspections were conducted, placing 4,565 vehicles, or 13%, out of service for brake-related violations. In Mexico, 355, or 6%, of the 5,958 commercial motor vehicles inspected, were placed out-of-service for brake-related violations. In Canada, 1,829 inspections were conducted, and the brake-related out-of-service rate was 14%, or 256 vehicles.

CVSA said that in addition to capturing brake system out-of-service violation data, during this year’s Brake Safety Week inspectors also recorded and submitted data regarding the chafing of brake hoses. Inspectors reported levels of brake hose chafing violations, separated into five categories based on the level of severity: two were out-of-service conditions, three were not.

A total of 6,697 hose chafing violations were reported.

“Although many commercial motor vehicle enforcement agencies were forced to reduce services in the spring due to the pandemic, it was important that we resumed inspection and enforcement duties as soon as it was safe to do so,” said CVSA President Sgt. John Samis with the Delaware State Police. “With truck drivers designated ‘essential personnel’ by the government, we needed to ensure that the vehicles traversing our roadways were safe to support commercial drivers as they selflessly continued to work during such a difficult and challenging time.”

Next year’s Brake Safety Week is scheduled for Aug. 22-28.

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