CVSA's Brake Safety Week Underway

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's (CVSA) Brake Safety Week has begun and will run through Aug. 29. This weeklong enforcement initiative is designed to improve brake safety and ensure that CMV's operating on North American highways are operating with properly maintained brakes.

Throughout the week, law enforcement will conduct routine CMV inspections focusing on brake systems and components.  Vehicles with brake (or other) violations will be cited and/or put out of service until the problem is fixed.

The focus of this year's inspections will be on drums and rotors. All violations and inspections will be reported to CVSA, analyzed and the results released to the public. These initiatives are dedicated to reducing injuries and fatalities due to faulty brakes, and increase compliance. 

As always, carriers are encouraged to do their due diligence in preventing violations by performing pre and post trip inspections and educating themselves on the importance of brake safety.

Last year, throughout North America 15,175 commercial motor vehicle inspections were conducted with a focus on brake systems and components as a part of Brake Safety Week. The majority of the commercial motor vehicles inspected (84.9%) did not have any out-of-service brake violations, however, CMV inspectors did place 2,296 vehicles out of service (OOS) due to brake-related violations.