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STATE MyEagleNews.com Wednesday, January 15, 2020 A7 Truck inspections crucial to ODOT’s ‘vision zero’ The state wants zero deaths on its roads by 2035, but an increasing number of trucks is taxing inspectors By Sam Stites Oregon Capital Bureau Truck inspections are the primary tool for preventing accidents that disrupt Ore- gon’s highways, hospital- ize thousands and leave hun- dreds dead each year. The Oregon Department of Transportation raised the bar for safety in adopting a new action plan in 2016. The agency envisions a future with no deaths from traffic accidents on Oregon’s roads. While crashes involv- ing commercial trucks only account for a small portion of the state’s annual death toll — only 58 of the 502 fatalities in 2018 involved a truck — ODOT’s Motor Car- rier Division takes seriously the inspection of trucks as a means of prevention. The number of vehi- cle miles traveled by trucks in Oregon has increased by 181 million miles the past decade. With an increasing num- ber of trucks on the road, state truck inspectors have become smarter about how they carry out their work, using data to target repeat offenders and keep both trucks and drivers with chronic issues off the road. In 2018, state specialists completed 18,549 inspec- tions and issued more than 3,500 citations and warnings. Through November, there have been more than 16,500 inspections and 2,900 warn- ings or citations issued to drivers or trucking compa- nies this year. A majority of those inspections are done at ports of entry at Woodburn, Klamath Falls, Huntington, Ashland and Cascade Locks. Oregon Capital Bureau/Sam Stites A tractor trailer approaches the scales at the Woodburn port of entry. Hundreds of thousands of cars pass the Woodburn truck scales on Interstate 5. It’s here that inspec- tors, called compliance specialists, complete ran- dom checks on a variety of criteria from the physi- cal equipment to a driver’s documentation. The process starts with the 75 weighmasters across the state at roadside scales like Woodburn. Weighmasters use an automated system that elec- tronically collects data from each truck that passes under a detector located about a mile up the freeway. Tom Avila is one of the weighmasters at the Wood- burn scales. After 14 years, he’s adept at reading doz- ens of data points on sev- eral trucks at once as they file past his little hut at the weigh station. He sits in front of two computer mon- itors displaying details he needs to know about each truck. In a matter of seconds, Avila reads who is driving, where they’re licensed, how long they’ve been driving, whether their registration is valid, how much weight each truck axle is carrying and if the weight matches Oregon Capital Bureau/Sam Stites ODOT Motor Carrier Compliance Specialist Don McCloskey inspects the valves on a truck hauling hazardous materials to make sure they’re properly maintained. their permit. The Woodburn scales are also piloting a new technology that can tell Avila whether a tire is flat or if there’s a problem with an axle so he can alert the driver to pull over. The Woodburn scales see approximately 6,000 to 7,000 trucks a day. Between pre-clearance and simply not having enough time to weigh every truck, that number is a small portion of the total trucks rolling by. Avila works with inspec- tors like Don McCloskey, who pull trucks out of line either by certain type — such as focusing on those carry- ing hazardous materials — or using a formula. According to Jess Brown, ODOT Motor Carrier’s cen- tral safety unit manager, the algorithm is crucial to inspec- tor’s ability to keep Oregon’s roads safe. Instead of randomly checking trucks and stopping drivers who have no viola- tions, inspectors can target trucks most likely to have an issue. “We want to take those trucks and drivers who are in bad shape off the road,” Brown said. McCloskey will ask Avila to flip a switch that notifies the driver they’re going to be inspected and to pull around to a large truck barn located a hundred feet west of the weigh station. According to Brown, compliance specialists like McCloskey are expected to complete between eight and 10 rigorous inspections a day. That means they give each truck a 360-degree sweep, crawling down into a pit to get underneath, shining flash- lights up into critical systems like brakes and load secure- ment, checking the driver’s service and medical records and ensuring registration is in order. An inspection can take from 30 minutes to an hour depending on what they find and how long it takes to dis- cuss with the driver what needs to be fixed. According to ODOT data, the most common issues inspectors catch are improper lights and brake problems. Those account for nearly half the violations cited by inspectors. Some violations are con- sidered critical enough to put a truck or driver tempo- rarily out of service, mean- ing the problem either has to be fixed on the spot, the truck towed or escorted to a mechanic. Those include any mechanical or load tie- down problems determined likely to cause an accident or breakdown. Those account for 23% of all violations issued by the Motor Carrier Divi- sion, slightly higher than the national average of 20%. Driver violations severe enough to force them off the road, such as driving over the allotted 11 hours in a 24-hour period or fail- ing to maintain a commer- cial driver’s license, account for 14% of all out-of-service violations. “Motor Carrier has had a very strong performance for a long time, and we take accidents incredibly seri- ous,” Brown said. “It’s one of the things that drew me to this job is the ability to prevent people from getting hurt.” But an increasing num- ber of trucks and the same number of inspectors each year means the Motor Car- rier Division heavily relies on technology to make sure they’re catching those fac- tors that could cause a crash. According to Brown, data from ODOT’s Crash Analysis Reporting Unit shows that, in many cases, driver behavior — speed- ing, following to close, improper lane changing, failing to yield, inattention — accounts for a majority of the truck at-fault crashes throughout that state. The division relies heav- ily on the Oregon State Police to catch problems. Many state troopers are trained to inspect trucks, often done on the side of a highway somewhere in Oregon. Troopers also keep an eye out for impaired truck driv- ers. In 2016, the most recent year data is available, 90 drivers were caught under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Inspections, however, don’t always result in cita- tions, according to Brown. In fact, compliance specialists are inclined to use inspec- tions as teachable moments so drivers learn what they need to fix or how to prevent issues from recurring. “I encourage all of my folks when they’re doing inspections, whether it’s a driver from Oregon, Nebraska, Maine or Cali- fornia, to give them their business card so they con- tact them if they have ques- tions,” Brown said. “The more informed everyone is out there the better.” Come check out Gregg’s Inventory of Products at Polaris. Blowers, ear augers, pruners & much more. 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