No matter whether you’ve driving a tractor-trailer or a personal vehicle, law enforcement officers across the country are gearing up for an Oct. 21-28 enforcement blitz. The weeklong Operation Safe Driver 2007 program is a spinoff of the Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks program sponsored by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Operation Safe Driver 2007 is using enforcement, education, media and evaluation to reduce fatalities and injuries resulting from acts such as cutting off, tailgating and speeding around trucks. The program pairs law enforcement with truckers; officers ride along in the trucks watching out for violations by both drivers of passenger vehicles and trucks.
The officer in the truck, after spotting a violation, calls ahead to additional officers in patrol units, who then stop the car or truck. Not all stops result in tickets; many of the Operation Safe Driver 2007 programs hand out brochures explaining many of the common dangerous maneuvers passenger vehicle drivers commit around trucks.
On Oct. 23-25, the Oregon Department of Transportation and its safety partners will host an open house from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day at the Woodburn Port of Entry on Interstate 5 southbound just north of Woodburn. Drivers and carrier officials are invited to stop in for refreshments and visit with representatives from the Oregon Trucking Association, FMCSA, ODOT, law enforcement and other safety organizations. Drivers can get information on truck safety regulations, winter driving tips, ODOT’s TripCheck travel information system and more.
