500+ CMVs get parked during safety blitz

Posted June 14, 2024

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's (CVSA's) 2024 unannounced one-day brake safety event resulted in 570 commercial vehicles removed from roadways across Canada, the U.S., and Mexico.

Inspectors conducted 4,898 CMV inspections and found 11.6 percent of commercial vehicles (570) traveling with brake-related vehicle violations. These critical violations resulted in immediate travel restrictions until the violation was corrected.

The top violation of the day was 20-percent brake violations, meaning "20 percent or more of the vehicle's service brakes had an out-of-service condition resulting in a defective brake."

Brake violation highlights

During Brake Safety Day 2024:

• 4,898 inspections were conducted
• 4,328 (84.4 percent) of commercial vehicles did not have brake-related out-of-service (OOS) violations
• 570 (11.6 percent) of commercial vehicles had brake-related OOS violations
  • 330 vehicles (57.9 percent) had 20-percent brake violations
  • 256 vehicles (44.9 percent) had other brake violations (worn brake lines, air leaks, broken brake drums, inoperative low-air warning device, etc.)
  • 73 vehicles (12.8 percent) had steer-related brake violations
• 4 (4.5 percent) of 88 performance-based brake testers (PBBT) inspections failed to meet the 43.5-percent minimum required braking efficiency standard and were placed OOS

What is Brake Safety Day?

Brake Safety Day is one-day yearly inspection blitz conducted by the CVSA. During that day, CVSA-certified inspectors conduct routine roadside inspections with an extra focus on brake systems and parts. The brake violation data collected from the blitz is then sent back to CVSA to glean more about regulatory compliance and enforcement standards and general safety on the roads.

Although the CVSA did not provide the date of this year’s enforcement event (which probably took place in April) in its data announcement, it did reveal the results of the collected data.

Brake lining/pad focus data

The 2024 Brake Safety focus was brake lining/pad health and safety, which may cause violations or OOS conditions that can impact a motor carrier’s safety rating if not working properly.

Inspectors found:

• 114 brake lining/pad violations on power units
  • 48 of these violations were for contamination
• 71 brake lining/pad violations on towed units
  • 23 of these violations were for cracks/voids in the linings/pads

Other violations were for worn or loose/missing brake linings/pads that accounted for 72 violations for power and towed units combined. Overall, there were 185 total violations in all four categories among power and towed units.

This article was written by Lucero Truszkowski of J. J. Keller & Associates, Inc.