Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/723417
42 | Overdrive | September 2016 C apt. Greg Kerr of the New Mexico Department of Public Safety's Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Bureau has thoughts about highway safety that truck drivers may fi nd familiar and sensible. His unit's 111 road offi cers see truck safety and the role of enforcement holistically, their actions dedicated al- most as much to citations of automobile drivers as truckers and inspections. When it comes to traffi c enforcement, four-wheelers are cited more often for speeding by offi cers dedicated to truck enforcement. In 2015, they issued just shy of 8,000 speeding citations to truckers, while automobile drivers received 10,000 such citations. On top of that, nearly 4,000 citations were issued to motorists for unsafe illegal actions around trucks – "following too closely, all kinds of improper lane changes, blocking," and more, Kerr says. "We're just as hard on the personally owned vehicles as we are on the CMVs." New Mexico consistently ranks in Overdrive's annual top 10 for inspection in- tensity, this year at No. 6. But its violation profi le refl ects what truckers have said about a measure of fairness. Responding to a question about recent experiences with New Mexico, Dean Furey recalled an inspection at the Gallup facilities on I-40 in the Western part of the state. "I think they are fair," Furey said. Carl Bag- well concurred, though noting personnel at the I-25 port of entry scale inside the Common ground New Mexico is heavy on inspections, but also understands that four-wheelers are 'part of the problem' with safety BY TODD DILLS CSA's DATA TRAIL STANDOUT STATES New Mexico SPEED-LIMITER BOTTLENECKS New Mexico Capt. Greg Kerr says per- haps the biggest recent safety issue he's noticed that's clearly under drivers' con- trol is when a speed-limited truck is trying to pass another one limited at about the same speed. "It might take them 10 to 12 miles to get by," he says. "You have a bunch of cars and trucks back up behind them and causing a safety hazard." It's this sort of hazard – among others – that has led what might be the biggest regulatory backlash in recent history among Overdrive readers: views against the U.S. Department of Transportation's plan to require electronic speed governing of trucks at a speed not yet determined. While Kerr advises truckers in such a situation to just "slow down – or speed up – a little" to either abort or finish the pass, or slow down and allow a passing trucker to get around quicker, he's also skeptical of the proposed mandate's safe- ty efficacy: "I think the main thing is you keep a good following distance. It really doesn't matter if you're going 65 or 75. If a driver is a safe driver, it doesn't matter what speed you're going."