North American Law enforcement officials say that passenger car speeding rates increased by 10 percent over last year and car drivers were issued citations at over three times the rate of commercial drivers.
Data from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s Operation Safe Driver (OSD) 2012 campaign in October found that passenger car drivers continue to “speed at alarming rates around commercial vehicles.”
“It’s distressing that the number of passenger car drivers who break the law and put their lives and the lives of others in jeopardy while driving around commercial motor vehicles is still so high,” said Stephen A. Keppler, CVSA’s executive director said. “The majority of fatal crashes that involve large trucks and passenger cars are precipitated by the car driver.”
“One of our goals for Operation Safe Driver is to bring awareness to passenger car drivers that they needlessly put themselves and others in danger by failing to recognize that commercial vehicles and cars differ in their handling characteristics.”
From the data collected by 2,918 enforcement personnel at 1,245 locations across the United States and Canada, speeding accounted for 66.2% of all citations, with passenger car drivers issued 51.2% of the total and commercial drivers being issued only 15%.
“It is vital to educate the public about driving safely around large trucks and buses and that every driver maintains a sharp focus on safety,” said FMCSA Administrator Ferro in a press release. “Always provide plenty of extra space for large trucks and buses to maneuver and to stop. Every driver must do their part so that every individual may reach their destination safely.”
Brian Neal, Chairman of the Operation Safe Driver Program, says the data clearly indicates the urgency for greater awareness and adoption of the programs and techniques that are available to educate the public about sharing the road with large trucks.
Even as truck speed violations are significantly lower than cars, Ontario and Quebec are two North American jurisdictions that have gone on to improve the safety rate even further with mandatory speed limiter legislation for commercial vehciles.
In fact, the 2012 Ontario Road Safety Annual Report (ORSAR) credits the speed limiter rule in part for helping Ontario rank first among all jurisdictions in North America for road safety.
