A total of 1,900 commercial motor vehicles were placed out of service in the U.S. during a weeklong inspection blitz in August. A total of 14,692 inspections were performed in the U.S. during the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s North American Brake Safety Week Aug. 25-31.
Enforcement officials in the U.S., Canada and Mexico conducted a total of 16,725 inspections on commercial motor vehicles. About 87% of those commercial motor vehicles did not have out-of-service violations and were deemed safe and permitted to proceed on roadways, according to the CVSA.
Of the 16,725 commercial motor vehicle inspections conducted, 2,149 of those vehicles had brake-related out-of-service violations, which is a 12.8% out-of-service rate.
Of the 2,149 commercial motor vehicles placed out of service, 1,355 (63.1%) had stand-alone out-of-service brake violations and 217 (10.1%) had steering axle brake out-of-service violations.
Also, 1,216 (56.6%) failed the 20% defective brakes criterion, which states that a vehicle is out of service if the number of defective brakes is equal to or greater than 20% of the service brakes on the vehicle or combination.
The focus area for this year’s Brake Safety Week was on lining/pad violations. Throughout the week, CVSA said inspectors looked for loose, missing or worn brake lining/pads, as well as cracks, voids or contamination. Inspectors found 382 lining/pad violations on power (tractor) units and 272 on towed (trailer) units, for a total of 654 brake lining/pad violations.
In Canada, inspectors conducted 1,926 inspections and discovered 243 brake-related out-of-service violations, which is a 12.6% out-of-service rate. Forty-four power units and 49 towed units had lining/pad violations.
In Mexico, inspectors conducted 107 inspections and discovered six brake-related out-of-service violations, which is a 5.6% out-of-service rate. One power unit and five towed units had lining/pad violations.
Eighteen states with performance-based brake testers (PBBT) participated in this year’s Brake Safety Week by conducting 452 inspections using their PBBTs. There were 26 failures, which is a 5.75% out-of-service rate.
Next year’s Brake Safety Week is scheduled for Aug. 24-30.
