Share the Road attends West Virginia highway safety program rollout

March 29, 2010
Share the Road was in West Virginia recently, serving as the rally point for a coalition of safety partners seeking to make highways safer in the state. The Share the Road tractor-trailer served as a symbol of raising awareness of the need for passenger occupancy vehicles and commercial motor vehicles to operate safely with one another

Share the Road was in West Virginia recently, serving as the rally point for a coalition of safety partners seeking to make highways safer in the state. The Share the Road tractor-trailer served as a symbol of raising awareness of the need for passenger occupancy vehicles and commercial motor vehicles to operate safely with one another.

A partnership between West Virginia’s Public Service Commission, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, American Trucking Associations, West Virginia Trucking Association, the Share the Road program, and motor carriers has resulted in a new state initiative to perform enhanced traffic enforcement on US Route 119 and Route 52 in southern West Virginia. The Public Service Commission has received a grant from FMCSA to fund overtime pay for enforcement officers so they may work toward increasing inspections by 10% in these two areas. The grant further allows enforcement officers to increase inspections by 3% throughout West Virginia.

This program will be based on a highly visible traffic enforcement program that will focus on these violations: speeding, following too close, improper lane change, improper passing, reckless driving, improper turns, failure to yield right of way, unsafe equipment, DUI, and controlled substances. In addition and during each stop, an alcohol/controlled substance check will be conducted by the enforcement officer, who will determine if further action is necessary.

The West Virginia program and grant application was modeled after an effective FMCSA program referred to as TACT (Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks). TACT concentrates solely on passenger vehicles driving aggressively around commercial motor vehicles. The purpose of a TACT program is to reduce the number of crashes, injuries, and fatalities on US roadways, as well as to increase public awareness about unsafe driving behaviors around commercial vehicles.

Visit www.atastr.org for further information.