Speeding was the leading violation identified during the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) 2019 Operation Safe Driver week, when 46,753 citations and 87,624 warnings were issued to drivers of commercial and private vehicles. Seat belt violations accounted for a significant portion of the tickets issued to commercial drivers.
“Failure to wear a seat belt” accounted for about nine percent of violations written to private drivers but 15 percent of those issued to commercial drivers.
Commercial vehicle enforcement officers across the country wrote 16,102 speeding tickets and 1,794 seat belt tickets to private drivers. For commercial drivers, the numbers were much closer with 1,454 speeding tickets and 954 seat belt tickets written.
The majority of tickets written during the operation, conducted July 14-20, were written to passenger vehicle drivers.
“Although CVSA is an organization focused on commercial motor vehicle safety, we know that if we want to prevent crashes involving commercial motor vehicles and passenger vehicles, it’s important that we focus on both types of vehicles and drivers,” said CVSA President Jay Thompson, who is chief of the Arkansas Highway Police. “Operation Safe Driver Week is our effort to focus on driver behaviors, the leading cause of crashes. We hope that contact with law enforcement during this traffic safety initiative helps to combat dangerous driver behaviors in the future, ultimately making our roadways safer.”
Top 10 Citations and Warnings Issued to Commercial Drivers
Description Citations Warnings
1 Speeding 1,454 2,126
2 Seatbelt 954 586
3 Disobey traffic control device 426 871
4 Handheld phone/texting 249 170
5 Improper lane change 92 194
6 Following too closely 57 143
7 Possession/use/under influence
of alcohol and/or drugs 55 18
8 Improper passing 41 30
9 Inattentive, careless reckless driving 32 55
10 Operating CMV while ill or fatigued 25 45
