Surprise Truck Safety Blitz in Illinois Nets 130+ Violations

The state of Illinois periodically conducts safety checks on certain stretches of roadway to make sure commercial trucks are remaining compliant with safety requirements. A crackdown held just a few days ago by Illinois State Police found more than 130 violations including many vehicles that were forced out of service.

I saw this new share by the Public Information Office of the Illinois State Police which broke down what just happened in Montgomery County where they posted a fixed scale. For the record, Montgomery County is located in the part of Illinois that's south of Springfield and northeast of the St. Louis area. Using North American Safety Standards, here are how many violations they discovered:

• Commercial Motor Vehicles Weighed 2,956
• Commercial Motor Vehicles Inspected 184
• Out of Service Violations Enforced 32
• Overweight Violations Enforced 8
• Other Violations Enforced 93

When you factor in the out-of-service, overweight and other violations, the grand total is 133 that were ticketed. That means about 1 out of every 22 vehicles that were looked at had some type of issue that was not compliant with current regulations.

I know that many drivers consider these random crackdowns as a hassle, but I also know several friends who had issues with their trucks that they were not aware of which means the inspections may have saved them from a bad accident or worse. It's all part of the life of being an over-the-road truck driver.