CVSA’s Operation Safe Driver Week to Focus on Speeding
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The 2022 Operation Safe Driver Week is scheduled for July 10-16, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance announced on March 29. During the heightened enforcement operation, law enforcement 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, CVSA said.
CVSA noted that the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration earlier this month released its latest annual traffic crash report. It showed that 38,824 lives were lost in traffic crashes nationwide in 2020 — the highest number of fatalities since 2007. While the number of crashes and traffic injuries declined overall, fatal crashes increased by 6.8%.
“Among the alarming statistics in NHTSA’s report was the key finding that speed-related fatalities increased by 17%,” CVSA said. “Consequently, speeding, in particular, will be a dangerous driving behavior that officers will identify and target during Operation Safe Driver Week.”
This year’s Operation Safe Driver Week is July 10-16. Law enforcement personnel in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. will be on roadways issuing warnings and citations to CMV and passenger vehicle drivers engaging in unsafe driving behaviors, such as speeding. https://t.co/kUuFyGexas pic.twitter.com/oWlReiOaxM — CVSA (@CVSA) March 29, 2022
“This safe driving initiative and campaign focuses specifically on drivers’ actions — whether it’s something a driver did, like speeding, or something they didn’t do, such as not paying attention to the driving task,” CVSA President Captain John Broers with the South Dakota Highway Patrol, said in a statement. “This focus on drivers’ behaviors is our effort to identify and educate drivers who are operating dangerously on our roadways, with the goal of preventing crashes from occurring.”
CVSA’s Operation Safe Driver Program was created to improve the driving behaviors of all drivers, and reduce the number of crashes involving commercial motor vehicles on our roadways through educational and traffic enforcement strategies. Operation Safe Driver Week was created by CVSA with support from federal agencies in Canada, Mexico and the U.S., the motor carrier industry, and transportation safety organizations.
Speeding also was a targeted enforcement effort last summer during the safe driver operation in July, during which law enforcement officers in the U.S., Canada and Mexico stopped 46,058 passenger and commercial motor vehicle drivers engaging in dangerous driving behaviors. Officers pulled over 28,148 commercial motor vehicles and 17,910 passenger vehicles July 11-17, issuing 10,486 warnings and 16,863 citations.
The top number of citations issued in last year’s operation were for speeding, according to an Oct. 7 CVSA announcement. There were 9,349 citations and 2,929 warnings given for speed-related offenses to passenger vehicle drivers, and 1,690 speed-related citations and 2,549 warnings to commercial motor vehicle drivers.
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