Truck checks yield violations aplenty

DRAPER — Because of recent accidents involving big trucks both in the South Mountain area and other parts of the state, the Utah Highway Patrol and Draper police held a surprise truck inspection Monday.

But troopers at the checkpoint soon became overwhelmed with not only the number of trucks they were pulling over but the number of trucks that had some sort of violation.

"It surprised me with the number of trucks we had," said UHP Sgt. Greg Lundell, head of the state's truck inspection team. "We're finding a violation on about all the units."

An inspection area was set up on Highland Drive near 13300 South. All large trucks were required to pull over and be inspected. Trucks were either given a passing grade, allowed to continue despite a minor violation or declared "out of service," meaning the violation was severe enough that the truck was not allowed back on the road until the problem was fixed.

In no time at all, Lundell said, the lot set aside for the surprise inspections was overflowing — so much so that troopers had to open the roadblock and let large trucks continue without inspection.

"About 80 percent of the trucks have violations, either with the vehicle or the driver. That's scary," Lundell said.

By the end of the day, a little under 60 trucks had been pulled over. A total of 22 trucks were taken out of service. There were a total of 46 out-of-service violations on all the trucks and 195 other violations. Forty-five citations and five warnings were issued.

The most common violation putting trucks out of service was brakes not being up to standard.

"It's the most common violation and the easiest to correct," Lundell said.

Not all the violations were confined to the vehicle. In at least one case, troopers saw the driver quickly switch places with the passenger as soon as he was pulled over. Troopers learned the driver had a suspended license and wasn't supposed to be behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle.

At the end of the day, three drivers were pulled off the road.

The large majority of trucks pulled over were construction vehicles. Lundell said local truck drivers generally have more violations than long-haul drivers because of fewer inspections. But he said it was up to both the driver and the carrier to keep the vehicle safe.