HOUSTON – This month, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) will increase enforcement efforts to reduce crashes involving commercial motor vehicles. The operation will also target aggressive and reckless drivers interacting near the vehicles.
Troopers and commercial motor vehicle inspectors will participate in two operations March 3 through 5 – Operation Safe D.R.I.V.E. (Distracted, Reckless, Impaired, Visibility Enforcement) and Texas Thunder – as they work collectively with partnering law enforcement agencies to improve highway safety.
Operation Safe D.R.I.V.E. is an initiative with 12 other partnering states to target unsafe commercial and passenger vehicles on interstates throughout Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. This month, Troopers in Texas will focus statewide on I-10, I-40, and I-35.
Operation Texas Thunder - a coordinated effort between DPS Commercial Vehicle Enforcement inspectors and Highway Patrol Troopers - is conducted in areas where unsafe trucks or buses may be operating. During this enforcement period, DPS Troopers and inspectors will check commercial vehicles for equipment violations, including brakes, tires, lights, and loading standards, among other equipment. Included in some inspections are reviews of logbooks, which document how long a driver has been operating the vehicle.
In the Houston area, Troopers will ride in commercial vehicles to identify hazardous violations and relay a description of the vehicle and violation to nearby Troopers for enforcement action.
Last year, Troopers throughout Texas investigated over 11,000 commercial vehicle crashes. Of them, 341 were fatal collisions that led to 393 deaths.
### (DPS-Southeast Region)