Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/455137
30 | Overdrive | February 2015 O hio is one of the tough- est states for mainte- nance violations, and it takes the grand prize for issuing light vio- lations. No state comes close to Ohio when measuring light violations as a percentage of total violations. In 2013, nearly a third of the state's total violations were for missing or inoperative lights. The actual percent- age, 30.5, was more than 5 percentage points higher than the next closest state in the rankings – Rhode Island, at 25.1 percent. Cynics might consider that fact to be indicative of nitpicking enforcement or clear evidence of stacking light vio- lations – writing multiple violations on top of a single root problem. Cincinna- ti-area resident Jim McCarter lends a more charitable interpretation. "I see it as evidence they are doing their civil duty," says McCarter of how Ohio inspectors keep a close eye on operators' trucks even as federal prior- ities shift states away from a primary equipment focus. Instead, more states are cracking down on traffic and hours enforcement, as reported in Overdrive's August "CSA's Fallout" installment. Those states believe it to be more effec- tive in reducing accidents, as does the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Adminis- tration, to a degree. Operator Scott Carlson, with Regal Services, runs the state regularly and also appreciates the department's focus on the truck. But he believes that younger officers of the "new school," as he calls those who've come on board in recent years, are more apt to write minor equipment violations. "The old- school officers," like a now-retired one Carlson knew who worked along In- terstate 90 in the northeast part of the state, "might just say 'fix that before you head out' and be done with it." Lights aren't the only maintenance priority in Ohio's truck enforcement program, led by the Public Utilities Light-sensitive Not a bright idea to run in Ohio if illumination isn't up to code BY TODD DILLS Light-sensitive