Troopers checking trucks for defects

SAN BENITO - Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Inspector Patricia Baez reclined on a mechanical dolly and rolled herself under a parked tractor-trailer rig.

Baez, a state trooper, was checking the 18-wheeler Thursday to see if it had any mechanical problems that could make it a safety hazard for other drivers on the road.

She found "quite a few" violations on this vehicle, Baez said.

Baez is one of dozens of Texas Department of Public Safety trooper-inspectors across the state participating in Roadcheck 2008, a 72-hour operation where troopers inspect all commercial vehicles to ensure the trucks meet safety requirements.

The nationwide operation began Tuesday and ended at 9 p.m. Thursday.

During the checks, troopers and CVE inspectors looked at brakes, driver log books, vehicle weights, insurance compliance, drivers licenses and more, said DPS Sgt. Abel Martinez, who manned the Roadcheck 2008 just outside San Benito on U.S Highway 77/83.

Officials also looked for drug or alcohol use.

Any vehicle that fails the inspection is taken out of service, Martinez said. The tractor-trailers can be taken out of service for various reasons, such as having bald tires or problems with turning signals or brakes not working properly.

The major violation that the trooper inspectors find is defective brakes. Some have been found to have loose lug nuts, which could cause the tires to fall off the vehicles.

"You don't want your family driving behind that vehicle," Martinez said.

Commercial vehicles taken out of service can be either repaired on the spot or must be towed, Martinez said. They cannot be driven away. The vehicles are marked with an out-of-service sticker to show other troopers that this vehicle should not be driven on the road.

Because the businesses that use the tractor-trailer rigs to move merchandise are familiar with the yearly operation, they have mechanics available that can go where the vehicles are being checked to repair problems that are found, Martinez said.

As of Thursday morning, troopers had inspected 12 commercial vehicles. Thirty-seven inspections were conducted on Wednesday and 47 on Tuesday. About 20 citations were issued in two days for equipment violations, Martinez said.

During Roadcheck 2007, 6,051 vehicles in Texas were inspected. At that time, 1,659 vehicles and 249 were removed from service because of serious safety violations, the DPS reported.