Fewer than 13% of all commercial vehicles inspected during a recent unannounced hazardous materials safety blitz were found to have out-of-service violations.
On Thursday, Aug. 28, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance released data from its annual hazardous materials/dangerous goods inspection and enforcement initiative. The unannounced event – which was conducted June 9 through June 13 – aims to “reduce hazardous materials/dangerous goods incidents and encourage uniformity and consistency in the application of the regulations.”
During the five-day inspection and enforcement blitz, a total of 4,629 commercial motor vehicles were inspected in the U.S. and Canada. From those inspections, inspectors discovered 1,169 hazmat violations, with just over half of those (598) being out-of-service violations.
CVSA said a total of 45 jurisdictions – 10 Canadian provinces and 35 U.S. states – participated in the enforcement effort.
Vehicles found to have out-of-service violations were removed from the road and restricted from traveling until the violations were addressed.
“The transportation of HM/DG demands rigorous training and heightened compliance requirements,” CVSA said in a statement. “For motor carriers and drivers, safely transporting HM/DG is imperative to the safety of the driver, the public and the environment.”
In the U.S., the most common violation was for non-bulk placarding (104), with bulk package marking (99) and bulk placarding (88) rounding out the top three.
Conversely, nearly 18% (831) of the commercial vehicles inspected during the safety blitz received CVSA decals.
Those decals are placed on vehicles or combinations to indicate there were no critical vehicle or specific cargo tank violations uncovered during the inspection. Decals are valid for up to three months. The agency said that vehicles that receive a decal are generally not subject to re-inspection.
During last year’s event, a total of 3,929 inspections were conducted, with over 85% of commercial vehicles found to have no critical violations. LL
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