Speeding, which was the focus of this year’s Operation Safe Driver Week, was the top violation – in the number of warnings given and citations issued – for drivers of both commercial motor vehicles and passenger vehicles.

Operation Safe Driver Week, held July 10-16 in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico is an annual concentrated enforcement effort organized by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance. Officers issued a total of 8,586 citations and 7,299 warnings for speeding/violating the basic speed law/driving too fast for conditions. That amounts to 2,577 warnings and 1,490 citations issued to commercial motor vehicle drivers. That compares to 4,722 warnings and 7,096 citations given to passenger vehicle drivers. 

The other top warnings and citations given to commercial vehicle drivers in the U.S. and Canada were:

• Failure to obey traffic control device: 944 warnings and 735 citations
• Failure to use a seat belt while operating a CMV: 678 warnings and 505 citations
• Using a hand-held phone/texting/distracted driving: 215 warnings and 239 citations
• Improper lane change: 175 warnings and 84 citations

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), speeding has played a role in more than a quarter of traffic deaths – killing nearly 100,000 people – over the past decade. In 2020 alone, there were 11,258 speeding-related deaths in the U.S. In addition, the American Transportation Research Institute’s recently updated “Predicting Truck Crash Involvement” report found that when a commercial motor vehicle driver receives a speeding violation, that increases their likelihood of being involved in a crash by 47%. And according to Transport Canada, speeding/driving too fast was a contributing factor in 25.3% of fatal crashes in 2020.