Roadcheck Results Show Improvements in Highway Safety Compliance

This year's Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) Roadcheck produced encouraging results, showing nationwide improvements in highway safety compliance. Data from the largest targeted enforcement program on commercial vehicles in the world show the highest overall vehicle compliance rate -- 80.4 percent -- since 1996, and the highest overall driver compliance rate -- 95.7 percent -- ever.

"These great improvements in the use of safety belts and overall safety compliance illustrate the trucking industry's deep commitment to the safety of all motorists," said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves.

Since its inception, ATA has supported CVSA's Roadcheck program and has worked cooperatively to determine emphasis areas.  This year, inspectors performed a record 72,782 truck and bus inspections at 2,148 locations across North America. Of that total, inspectors conducted 57,013 NAS Level I inspections, the most comprehensive roadside inspection. Both of these totals are significant increases over previous records for the 22-year event.

Figures also indicated that the number of commercial motor vehicle drivers wearing safety belts improved by more than 22 percent over last year.

ATA recently released a progressive 18-point highway safety agenda that aims to further improve safety on our nation's highways. Moreover, the trucking industry has encouraged regulation that reduced overall time truck drivers can work in a day. While operating under these hours-of-service rules for the last five years, the trucking industry's safety performance dramatically improved. Large truck crash, injury and fatality rates have reached their lowest point since the U.S. Department of Transportation began recording these statistics. Figures released by the Federal Highway Administration indicate that the truck-involved fatality rate in 2007 declined 5.8 percent to 2.12 per 100 million miles from 2.25 per 100 million miles in 2006.