Record Number of Trucks Inspected During Brake Safety Week; Brake OOS Rate Drops

The number of vehicles inspected during Operation Air Brake's "Brake Safety Week" reached a historic high this year, while also showing a significant drop in the number of out-of-service defects for brake components and overall out-of-service defects.

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's Brake Safety Week is a component of the Operation Air Brake campaign, an ongoing effort of an international truck and bus brake safety program dedicated to improving commercial vehicle brake safety throughout North America. Brake Safety Week took place September 12-18 across North America.

"While enforcement is a major focus of Operation Air Brake, education also is critically important," said CVSA Executive Director Stephen A. Keppler. "CVSA recently completed a survey of 7,500 drivers during Brake Safety Week that showed us education remains a big issue. We use the information gathered from Operation Air Brake to really try to understand problem areas and assist industry in increasing their compliance to improve highway safety for them and the motoring public."

Overall results show:

* 30,472 vehicles inspected. The highest number of vehicles inspected since program started in 1998. There were 26,630 inspections in 2009.

* 2,717 vehicles were placed out of services for brake adjustments (8.9% in 2010, 9% in 2009).

* 2,435 vehicles were placed out of service for brake components (8% in 2010, 9.2% in 2009).

* 4,117 vehicles were placed out of service for brakes (13.5 percent in 2010, 15.1 percent in 2009).

Historically, OOS rates have been lower in Canada and this continues in 2010. During Brake Safety Week 2010, 13.7 percent vehicles in the U.S. were placed OOS for brake adjustments compared to 10.3 percent in Canada. Canada also reported a significant drop in the OOS rates for brakes in 2010 (4.4 percent) versus 2009 (6.5 percent).