On Friday, Nevada State Police (NSP) unleashed its Badge on Board Operation.
The NSP is reminding people to drive safe around semi-trucks as they used their own truck today to help identify drivers who weren’t driving safely.
During their operation, I did a ride along with NSP to get a closer look at how it works.
When I got there Friday morning, they had already made about 60 stops,and for the 30 minutes I was there they got about 15 more.
NSP says doing this work helps to keep roads safer for not just semi-trucks, but for other drivers as well.
For the operation, State Troopers Jim Farley and James Phillips set out in a semi-truck.
In the truck, they are unable to pull anybody over, but they would identify cars for their patrol to stop.
Patrol cars were placed all throughout the freeway to be able to act as quickly as possible.
They weren’t able to get everyone they saw, but they made quite the impact as the troopers predicted they would have over 100 stops by the end of the day.
The main reason for the operation is to help prevent accidents with semi-trucks as they have more limitations than regular cars.
“They have really large blind spots,” Farley said. “They don’t move as fast as regular cars, and they don’t stop as fast. Some of these trucks weigh in an excess of 129,000 pounds rolling down the road.”
Moving violations they were looking for included following too closely, speeding, unsafe lane changes, cell phone usage, and failure to signal lane change.
They talked about the biggest issue they noticed on the roads.
“Today the observation is cell phones,” Farley said. “People using their cell phones, texting or emailing as their going down the road holding it in their hand.”
It doesn’t look like the Badge on Board Operation will be coming to an end.
“This will be the second time this year and we’re going to run a couple more campaigns as the end of the year comes along,” Farley said.
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