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.”
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