During this year's Roadcheck, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's inspections found significant drops in vehicle and driver out-of-service rates as well as safety belt violations.
From Canada to Mexico, the organization monitored about 17 trucks or buses every minute during the 72-hour period from June 2-4.

"The commercial motor vehicle industry is proving the old adage that it pays to be safe," said Darren Christle, CVSA's president.

The group set out this year to focus on the North American Standard Level I inspection, and with 9,700 CVSA and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration certified inspectors at 2,148 locations, 57,013 of the 72,782 inspections were NAS Level I. This is a total inspection increase of 7.1 percent from 2008 and an 8.9 percent boost in NAS Level I inspections from last year.

Drivers and vehicles set records for compliance, with 95.7 percent for drivers, the highest ever, and 80.4 percent for vehicles, the best rate since 1996. Safety belt violations were reduced by 22.2 percent from last year. The CVSA also found that greater compliance among NAS Level I inspections, with compliance rates of 77.8 percent for vehicles and 96.1 percent for drivers. Respectively, this resulted in 7.1 percent and 20.4 percent improvements over last year's numbers.

"The positive results of this year's Roadcheck program reinforce the importance of federal, state and local enforcement partners working together to keep our roads safe and save lives," said Rose McMurray, acting deputy administrator for the FMCSA. "The data shows that on key measures of safety performance, such as driver and vehicle compliance with safety requirements and seat belt usage, the commercial motor carrier industry is demonstrating record improvements."

CVSA sponsors Roadcheck each year with the FMCSA, Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, Transport Canada, and the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation in Mexico.