A 24-hour enforcement blitz in 14 Southeastern states targeted problem drivers - both commercial and passenger vehicles - on Feb. 28.


"Operating a motor vehicle safely demands every driver's strict attention," said John Hill, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. "Poor decisions by drivers such as tailgating, speeding, cutting off other vehicles or making sudden lane changes account for the majority of fatal crashes. Commercial drivers and passenger vehicle drivers have a responsibility to share the road safely with each other."

During the blitz, which involved 840 law enforcement officers and FMCSA personnel operating at 355 locations, 15 percent of the commercial drivers were placed out of service.

The number of moving violations written to non-commercial drivers was higher than those for commercial drivers, even though there were a significantly higher number of CMV "driver traffic enforcement contacts." Out of 4,102 of these contacts for commercial drivers, 960 moving violations resulted, or 0.23 violations per contact. Out of 2,183 non-CMV enforcement contacts, there were 1,343 moving violations, or 0.62 violations per contact.

The most common reasons for CMV traffic violations were speeding (52.5 percent), failure to obey a traffic control device (16.4 percent), not wearing a seat belt (14.7 percent), improper lane change (5 percent) and following too closely (4.2 percent). The most common violations for passenger-vehicle drivers were speeding (75.5 percent), not wearing a seat belt (8.8 percent) and following too closely (3.3 percent).

The blitz also included educational activities, such as distributing posters and brochures on sharing the road with trucks.