After a rash of accidents involving cars and 18-wheelers, officials have taken to the streets in some “aggressive enforcement” of the laws surrounding commercial vehicles.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol, the Sequatchie County and Hamilton County sheriff’s offices and the Governor’s Highway Safety Office teamed up for Operation Safe Driver, prompted by five crashes that killed six people in the past year.
On Wednesday, 10 Highway Patrol troopers and 20 sheriff’s deputies monitored Highway 111 from Cagle Mountain to Soddy-Daisy. They uncovered 49 safety defects in 28 trucks and took one driver to jail for having a suspended license, said Lt. John Harmon with the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
Each truck went through a “very thorough North American Level 1 and Level 2 safety inspection,” meaning inspectors checked everything from tire pressure to the undercarriage of trucks for violations, Harmon said.
Lt. Tim Griswold with the Tennessee Highway Patrol has been inspecting trucks for 25 years and said he noticed weight violations by trucks carrying more than 10,000 pounds over their weight limit.
Harmon said a load that exceeds weight limits could cause a truck’s brakes to go out when the driver is going downhill and also could damage roads and bridges.
Griswold supervised the investigations of the five crashes that killed six people on the stretch of Highway 111. All five crashes involved drivers running into the backs of 18-wheelers. Griswold said drivers were not aware of how trucks must drive through mountains.
“It’s people running up behind these slow-moving trucks,” Griswold said. “The trucks are moving 20 to 30 mph down the mountain while cars are running 60 mph.”
Still, it’s hard to determine exactly what caused the wrecks, Griswold said.
According to a 2010 Allstate Insurance report, Chattanooga has the safest drivers in the South.
Allison Hatcher, spokeswoman for Allstate, said the average Chattanooga driver goes 13 years between accidents but that “even the safest city has distracted drivers and hot spot intersections.”
Harmon said the inspections will become more frequent in the Chattanooga area and that drivers should “look for them anytime.”
BY THE NUMBERS
Operation Safe Driver
* 28 total inspections
* 49 safety defects noted
* 8 overweight vehicles
* 1 driver taken to Sequatchie County Jail for driving on a suspended driver’s license
Source: Lt. John Harmon, Tennessee Highway Patrol