Throughout the week, law enforcement will be placing special emphasis on risky driving behaviors, including speeding and distracted driving.
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s Operation Safe Driver Week began on July 12 and will continue through July 18.
According to CVSA, the weeklong initiative aims to improve the driving behaviors of passenger and commercial motor vehicle drivers through educational and traffic enforcement strategies and interactions with law enforcement.
“Driver-related behaviors are largely preventable,” CVSA wrote. “Therefore, addressing these behaviors is one of the most effective ways to reduce injuries, save lives and improve overall road safety.”
Some of the risky driving behaviors cited by CVSA include speeding, distracted driving, drowsy driving, following too closely, impaired driving, failure to wear a seatbelt, unsafe lane changes and disregarding traffic signals.
The focus in 2026 will be on reckless, careless or dangerous driving.
“Any person who drives a vehicle in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property is guilty of reckless driving,” CVSA wrote.
Law enforcement officers in Canada and the United States pulled over 8,379 vehicles during Operation Safe Driver Week in 2025. That led to 3,230 warnings and 1,839 citations to commercial motor vehicles, as well as 345 warnings and 665 tickets to passenger vehicle drivers, for various unsafe driving behaviors.
More than 2,700 tickets were given to commercial motor vehicle and passenger vehicle drivers combined in 2024.
In 2023, CMV drivers were given 2,634 tickets, compared to 1,860 to passenger vehicle drivers.
Trooper in a Truck campaign
In addition to Operation Safe Driver Week, the Wisconsin State Patrol is having its annual Trooper in a Truck campaign July 13-17.
Riding with truck drivers provides troopers with a higher vantage spot to spot risky driving by passenger vehicles. The annual campaign is done in conjunction with the Wisconsin Motor Carriers Association.
In a 2024 interview with Land Line Media, Sgt. Daniel Diedrich of the Wisconsin State Patrol told Land Line that the initiative is eye-opening for troopers.
“We see a lot of violations as it is, but it’s amplified – we’ll call it five- to tenfold – when you get above the height of normal traffic. So, we really want to partner with these local carriers,” Diedrich said. “There are issues, and this is how we want to work with the industry to remedy some of the things they’re dealing with on a daily basis.”
This week, troopers plan to ride with truckers in the Wisconsin cities of Eau Claire, Waukesha, Madison, Green Bay and Wausau. LL
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