Operation Safe Driver Week 2022, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) seven-day safe-driving campaign, began on Sunday, July 10, across North America. It is aimed at improving the driving behaviors of passenger vehicle and commercial motor vehicle drivers through educational and traffic enforcement strategies and interactions with law enforcement.
Law enforcement in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico are looking for commercial motor vehicle drivers and passenger vehicle drivers who are driving dangerously. Examples of dangerous driving behaviors include speeding, driving while using a mobile device, driving aggressively, cutting off other drivers, following too closely, etc. Drivers identified by law enforcement officers for engaging in unsafe driving behaviors will be issued warnings or citations.
The goals of Operation Safe Driver Week are to:
Alter drivers’ unsafe driving behaviors by having a high-visibility law enforcement presence on the roadways.
Change bad driving habits long term through interactions with law enforcement.
Provide commercial motor vehicle driver education and awareness programs to the motor carrier population.
Reduce the number of crashes.
Law enforcement will be tracking commercial motor vehicle driver and passenger vehicle driver interactions during Operation Safe Driver Week and will submit that data to CVSA. The results from this week will be released this fall.
“People know CVSA as the organization comprised of law enforcement officers who inspect commercial motor vehicles and remove dangerous vehicles from our roadways; however, we do much more than that,” said CVSA's president, Capt. John Broers of the South Dakota Highway Patrol.
“The goal of CVSA’s member jurisdictions is to reduce the number of crashes on our roadways. We know that many crashes are the result of unsafe driving behaviors and bad driving decisions. That’s why it’s so important for [CVSA] to also focus on and invest in improving driver behaviors on our roadways. We want everyone to be safe when they’re traveling in their vehicle—whether that’s a truck driver or a passenger vehicle driver.”
Operation Safe Driver is a CVSA program—in partnership with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), state, provincial, and local law enforcement, and industry—launched in 2007 to reduce the number of deaths and injuries resulting from crashes involving large trucks, motorcoaches, and passenger vehicles.
