Florida Injury Attorney Blog

In Florida, Georgia and twelve other Southeastern states, traffic enforcement officials and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (which was created to regulate commercial truck drivers and the trucking industry) conducted what was referred to as an enforcement blitz that focused on unsafe drivers of commercial and passenger vehicles a few weeks ago according to a post on www.carbuyersnotebook.com.

Semi trucks, 18 wheelers and tractor trailers, as commercial vehicles are often called, were part of the focus of the traffic officials. Some of the poor driving the traffic officials looked for included speeding, tailgating and cutting off other drivers. For tractor trailer drivers driving vehicles that weigh many tens of thousands of pounds, these unsafe driving tactics can result in serious accidents that cause catastrophic injuries or death.

The traffic enforcement blitz resulted in 15% of the commercial truck drivers being placed out of service. The phrase "out of service" is commonly used to describe a scenario where a tractor trailer and driver are routinely inspected by a Department of Transportation official and found to have a violation serious enough for the official to take the driver and/or the tractor trailer off of the road until the violation is corrected. Out of service violations can apply to a truck driver, the tractor or the trailer.

Out of over 4000 contacts between the tractor trailer drivers and the law enforcement officials, there were 0.23 moving violatiions per contact. Common traffic violations were speeding, tailgating and failing to wear a seat belt. The passenger vehicle drivers had a higher number of traffic violations per contact. The enforcement blitz makes it clear that while unsafe driving certainly is not unique to commercial drivers of tractor trailers, it is still a major problem that can have serious ramifications if not properly dealt with.