Thousands of law enforcement officers will be blanketing North America's roadways for 72 continuous hours beginning June 3 to hammer home the importance of comprehensive safety inspections of trucks and buses and on enforcing safety belt use.


"Roadcheck," sponsored by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, dispatches federal, state, provincial and local inspectors to more than 1,000 locations across the continent to conduct comprehensive North American Standard Level I Inspections.

"While we certainly have a long way to go and we can never be satisfied until we have zero deaths," said Stephen F. Campbell, CVSA's executive director, "It is clear there have been dramatic safety improvements over the last 20 years and, in large part, this success has been the direct result of an increase in roadside inspections and enforcement through the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program."

In 1988, to conduct these activities $50 million in federal dollars were made available to the states through the MCSAP vs. $197 million in 2007.

Last year, the 62,370 roadside inspections performed during Roadcheck saved 15 lives and prevented 271 injuries, according to CVSA. Over the course of a year, that performance rate would equal 1,825 lives saved and 32,972 injuries prevented. Annually, there are more than 3.5 million roadside inspections conducted across North America.

More info: www.cvsa.org

Read about last year's Roadcheck here.