Do Safety Inspections Improve Safety? Evidence from the Roadside Inspection Program for Commercial Vehicles

Results from Minnesota/Wisconsin Automatic Out-of-Service Verification Operational Test

Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board ◽

10.3141/1640-12 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 1640 (1) ◽

pp. 92-99

Author(s):

Robert L. Smith ◽

Wen-Jing Huang

Keyword(s):

Real Time ◽

Personal Computer ◽

Potential Benefit ◽

License Plate ◽

Commercial Vehicles ◽

Central Computer ◽

Operational Test ◽

New System ◽

Safety Inspections

A project was designed to enhance the ability of inspectors at fixed safety and weight stations (scales) to identify “out-of-service” (OOS) commercial vehicles and drivers by using advanced video-based license plate scanners linked to database software on a personal computer, the MOOSE system. In Wisconsin the results of safety inspections at the scales are stored in real time on a central computer database. This includes commercial vehicles and drivers placed OOS because of major safety violations. The primary goals were to increase the effectiveness of OOS enforcement efforts, establish a bistate enforcement program, and identify future applications. The technology was tested on a corridor involving three scales in Wisconsin and one in Minnesota on westbound I-90/I-94. The MOOSE system did identify a large number of OOS vehicles and drivers, but upon reinspection, almost no current OOS violations were found. The MOOSE system was successfully implemented at the Minnesota scale, but, as in Wisconsin, very few current OOS violations were identified. Because the Minnesota scale operates 24 hr/day, drivers coming from Wisconsin who are still OOS will probably use bypass routes. The greatest potential benefit from the MOOSE system is likely to be from linking the license plates to a new system that provides safety rating scores. Inspectors could then select vehicles for inspection that have a higher probability of being OOS or having other safety violations.

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