CVSA Conducts Roadcheck; Md. Trucker Gets Big Fine
By Sarah Godfrey, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the June 11 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Trooper Eric White of the Maryland State Police said he routinely fines truck drivers whose vehicles are over their weight limits, but he hit the mother lode on June 5.
While inspecting trucks on Interstate 495 here during Roadcheck 2007 — the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s three-day national safety check — White noticed a dump truck with flattened tires, one sign of an overweight vehicle, he said.
White stopped the driver and, weighing the dump truck on portable scales, found it weighed 70,300 pounds — far exceeding the 17,000 pounds for which the vehicle was authorized.
Not only did the driver overload the vehicle according to the manufacturer’s standard, White said, but he also registered the truck improperly, classifying it in a lower gross vehicle weight rating class than was actually the case.
The driver was charged with driving a motor vehicle on a publicly maintained highway with excessive gross weight and was issued a ticket with a $16,155 fine.
“It’s the biggest one I’ve ever written,” White said.
The trooper said that he often sees cases of drivers or company owners under-reporting the weight of their vehicles to avoid paying higher fees. White said that it cost this truck $150 to register for 17,000 pounds.
If it had been rated properly — in the range of 65,000 to 70,000 pounds for a Class 8 — the fee would have been closer to $1,000, he said.
White told Transport Topics he pursues overweight vehicles because they are a major source of highway accidents.
“When they hit their brakes, they’re so heavy that they can’t stop,” he said.
The trooper had stopped the same dump truck driver two weeks earlier and had given him a warning for having an overweight vehicle, but he seemed to be one of the few operators unaware that the vehicle safety effort was under way on June 5.
“I didn’t know,” said the driver, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Steve Keppler, director of policy and programs for CVSA, said about 10,000 inspectors would examine vehicles at nearly 1,300 sites during Roadcheck 2007. CVSA represents state highway patrols and other government agencies dealing with truck safety in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
During the 72-hour Roadcheck, up to three times as many inspectors and law enforcement officers were on North American roads and highways as on a typical day.
For the event last year, 8,522 inspectors conducted 60,357 inspections at 1,850 sites throughout North America. In the United States alone, 3,389 drivers and 13,095 vehicles were pulled out of service, according to CVSA. Statistics for Roadcheck 2007 will be available later this summer.
Roadcheck concentrated this year on Level 1 North American Standard inspections — comprehensive 37-step checks of both vehicle and driver, as well as seatbelt use and motor-coach safety.
At a weigh station here, MSP Capt. Norman Dofflemyer said inspectors were focusing on Level 1 inspections and hazardous materials checks. The station typically operates for 16 hours a day, but during Roadcheck this year was scheduled to conduct nonstop inspections from 11 p.m. on June 5 into the night of June 8.
David Hugel, deputy administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, visited the station to observe inspections. He told Transport Topics that it was important for FMCSA to work with CVSA for the event as a way to participate in hands-on safety initiatives.
“One of our major efforts is inspection of vehicles to make sure that they are safe, but it’s dependent on a partnership with the states. They do major inspections to keep the highways safe,” Hugel said. “This is a good opportunity for us to get out and get involved.”
Although an early-morning truck driver was charged with driving under the influence at the College Park site, most trucks passing through the weigh station June 5 appeared to pass the Levels I and III inspections performed.
A driver with Covenant Transport who stopped at the weigh station said she knew of Roadcheck and fully supported the program.
“I’m glad,” she said of Roadcheck. “They’re doing their jobs, just like I’m doing mine.”
The driver, who declined to give her name, had only one minor complaint: the 45-to-60-minute Level 1 inspection, performed by Sgt. Chip Ewing, required that her engine, and therefore her air-conditioning, be turned off. She worried that her co-driver husband, asleep in the cabin, would be disturbed by the heat.
Still, the driver said that Roadcheck was not only beneficial but necessary. “Inspection makes it safer for everyone,” she said.
