The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is set to launch a national program to train police officers in traffic enforcement for large trucks, according to the agency.
As reported by Heavy Duty Trucking magazine, FMCSA’s Jack Van Steenburg said the agency worked with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance on a curriculum covering the basics of truck safety enforcement and will launch the program February 17.
The program is aimed at helping officers obtain a better understanding of trucking equipment and operations and focuses on safely conducting truck and bus stops, Van Steenburg said in a presentation at the Transportation Research Board in Washington, D.C.
Sometimes, police may avoid action because they are concerned about the safety of pulling a truck over, are not qualified to conduct a truck inspection or do not understand the documentation involved, said Stephen Keppler, executive director of CVSA.
Keppler added, that when an officer does pull over a truck, the information about that event does not necessarily get entered into the appropriate federal safety database.
Both Van Steenburg and Keppler noted that trucking interests such as American Trucking Associations have long been urging the agency to put more resources into traffic enforcement.
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