The Maine State Police joined a national initiative to enforce safety standards for commercial vehicles last week and found that a staggering 80 out of the 390 trucks examined posed a risk to the public.
The State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit joined the national Distracted, Reckless, Impaired, and Visibility Enforcement (DRIVE) campaign held by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
As part of the three-day initiative, the state police inspected 390 commercial trucks and found that 80 of those inspected, roughly 20 percent, posed an “imminent safety risk to the public.”
Law enforcement placed those 80 vehicles out of service.
Police screened vehicles using “smart roadside technologies,” such as tire anomaly sensors, thermal imaging for brakes, and license plate readers to help investigators locate trucks with violations for inspection.
The most dangerous truck identified in the enforcement action was initially flagged by tire anomaly sensors. Further inspection revealed 37 separate violations, including bald tires and missing brakes.
Despite the recent national focus on non-citizens and illegal immigrants receiving commercial driver’s licenses and causing fatal crashes, police did not release any information on the people caught operating the unsafe commercial vehicles.
