Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/611028
December 2015 | Overdrive | 43 intense states for inspections this year at No. 7, shooting a dramatic 15 places up in the rankings. Level 3 inspections typically involve a traffic stop with an observed violation. "We're a state that can stop a driver for just compliance with the regulations," Armstrong says. Illinois troopers don't need "probable cause," contrary to what many drivers seem to believe. (The same is true about neighboring Indiana: see sidebar this page.) Increasing use of the Level 3 inspec- tion has produced a significant rise in moving violations marked on inspection reports. A fifth of all the violations issued in 2014 contributed to carriers' scores in the Unsafe Driving CSA category, the repository for such behavioral violations. In each of the past two years of Over- drive's violation category rankings, the state has fallen behind only Indiana and Delaware as measured on the proclivity for issuing such violations. There are signs Illinois has begun to let up, however. Though Armstrong earlier this year suggested 2015 would be another high-intensity year for inspec- tions, as of the end of the third quarter, the state was on pace to conduct almost 71,000 inspections by yearend – nearly 20,000 fewer (about 20 percent lower) than its 2014 inspection high. Violations issued have shown a more rapid decline. Judging by totals of the first nine months, Illinois was on pace to issue 33,000 fewer violations in 2015, about a third less. VARIED FOCUS ON MOVING VIOLATIONS Indiana, whose truck-enforcement department was profiled in Overdrive in 2014, remained at the top of the moving violations rankings for 2014. A quarter of all the inspection violations it marked on inspection reports in 2014, whether issuing citations and giving drivers their day in court or not, were moving-type violations. Speeding accounted for more than two-thirds of the roughly 30,000 moving violations enforcement marked there, according to federal data mined by RigDig Business Intelligence. Other violation types, contributing to carrier scores in the Unsafe Driving cat- egory of measurement in the CSA Safety Measurement System, fall well below such levels in Indiana. The next most prevalent items were failure to wear a seatbelt and following too close. By comparison, in Illinois, about half of moving-type violations were for speeding. Improper lane changes made up nearly a third. All 10 states at the top of the mov- ing-violations rankings in 2014 fall above the national average of 4.6 per- cent. Though the three toughest states remained unchanged, notable move- ment down the list this year was seen with declines in traffic enforcement in Michigan, North Dakota and Oklahoma. Unsurprisingly, all but Idaho among those 10 states conducts more than 80 percent of inspections at roadside. Drivers, meanwhile, have reported no shortage of state and local police using the observed moving violation as a trigger to pull a truck over and do a wider inspec- tion of the vehicle and the driver's creden- tials. With only a mark on an inspection report and no attendant citation, challeng- es to such violations often come down to "he-said, she-said" affairs. Moving violations as a percentage of all violations 12.8% 2011 2012 2013 2014 ILLINOIS National average 13.8% 20.7% 4.5% 4.3% 4.5% 4.6% 20.6% Category Maintenance Lights Brakes Tires Moving violations Hours of service Percentage of all violations 46.7% 12.4% 11.1% 3.5% 20.6% 8.9% National rank of percentage 45 38 34 40 3 38 INSPECTIONS PER LANE-MILE: 7 NATIONAL RANK: 7 VIOLATION PROFILE CLEAN INSPECTIONS: 48% NATIONAL AVERAGE: 40% Illinois' top-10 inspection intensity ranking in 2014 was a relatively new phenomenon for the Land of Lincoln. It was due to a concerted effort with roadside-conducted enforcement following accidents involving state troopers and trucks. In 2014 alone, the state climbed 15 places to No. 7. Illinois is clearly a leader in the stats for the high percentage of moving-type violations it marks on inspection reports. That emphasis coincides with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's goal in recent years to have states focus on the causes underpinning most at-fault truck accidents, as opposed to mainte- nance violations that show much less causation. Illinois also is not shy about giving credit where it's due, with an above-average rate of clean inspections logged. That share has grown since 2011 by about 20 percent. Unless otherwise noted, all numbers based on 2014 federal data analyzed by RigDig Business Intelligence (rigdig.com/bi) Percentages indicate moving violations' share of total state-issued violations in 2014. 1.Indiana 24.8% 2.Delaware 22.4% 3.Illinois 20.6% 4.Michigan 13.8% 5.Idaho 13% 6.Tennessee 13% 7.Oklahoma 12.7% 8.North Dakota 10.5% 9.New Mexico 9.8% 10.Massachusetts 9.5% TOP 10 STATES FOR TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT