The results are in from this year’s Brake Safety Week, an annual campaign that’s part of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) Operation Airbrake program. The purpose of this event is to raise awareness regarding the importance of brake maintenance and efficiency, as well as reduce brake-related crashes on the road.
Keep reading to learn more about Brake Safety Week and review the key findings from this year’s event.
What Is Brake Safety Week?
During this week-long initiative—which took place from Aug. 23-29 this year—commercial vehicle inspectors across North America aim to identify and remove unsafe commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) from roadways.
Specifically, CMVs are inspected throughout this event for critical, brake-related violations—which are outlined in the CVSA’s North American out-of-service criteria. CMVs with such violations are placed out of service and required to be removed from roadways until the necessary vehicle adjustments or repairs are made. In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the CVSA confirmed that all necessary health and safety protocols were upheld during this year’s inspections.
This Year’s Results
Here are some of the key findings from this year’s Brake Safety Week.
- Out-of-service vehicles—In the United States, a total of 35,778 inspections took place throughout this year’s event. Of these inspections, just over 4,500 CMVs (13%) were placed out of service due to critical, brake-related violations.
- Decal recipients—Across North America, 88% of inspected CMVs did not have any critical, brake-related violations. Those vehicles may receive a CVSA decal. This decal—which is valid for three months—symbolizes that the CMV was recently inspected by a certified inspector and had no violations.
- Brake hose chaffing violations—This year, inspectors also collected data specifically regarding brake hose chaffing violations. These violations were separated into five different categories, based on severity—with Category 1 being the least severe and Category 5 being the most severe. Of these 4,319 violations in the United States:
- Category 1 and Category 2 violations contributed to nearly two-thirds (64%) of the total violations.
- Category 3 violations totaled 15% of the overall violations.
- Category 4 and Category 5 violations— which were the only two categories critical enough to require CMVs to be placed out of service—comprised 21% of the total violations.
Looking ahead, next year’s Brake Safety Week is scheduled to take place from Aug. 22-28, 2021.
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