Get Ready! The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s annual Operation Safe Driver Week, which focuses on unsafe driving of both trucks and cars, will take place July 14-20, with the focus being on speeding violations.

Law enforcement agencies across the country will be out in force looking for dangerous driving by both commercial vehicle and passenger vehicle drivers during the weeklong event. The CVSA says that any driver caught driving unsafely will be pulled over and issued a warning or a citation.

In addition to speeding, law enforcement will be looking for other dangerous driving behaviors, including distracted driving, texting, failure to use a seatbelt, following too closely, improper lane change, reckless or aggressive driving, failure to obey traffic control devices, evidence of driving under the influence and more. Any of these citations can carry points on your CDL or PSP score.  If reported on an inspection they will also carry points on the carrier’s CSA score that you are driving for.

in 2018, Law enforcement pulled over or inspected more than 42,000 commercial vehicle drivers during 2018’s Operation Safe Driver Week and issued 10,709 citations and 29,908 warnings for unsafe driving. The top five citations issued were for violations of state and local laws (6,008 citations), speeding (1,908), failing to use a seat belt (1,169), failure to obey a traffic control device (754), and using a handheld phone (262). (CCJ Digital)

“For more than two decades, speeding has been involved in nearly one-third of all motor vehicle fatalities. That is unacceptable, especially because it’s preventable. We will continue to educate the public on the dangers of speeding and we will identify individuals who are speeding on our roadways and may issue citations as a deterrent to future speeding tendencies and to affect diver behavior,” said CVSA President Chief Jay Thompson

Safe Driving is ALWAYS your best defense in avoiding violations. However, staying protected legally is a must in today’s environment.  If you do get a citation, CDL Legal has a win rate in court of over 95%, which leads the industry.