North Carolina’s Operation Safe DRIVE Seeks to Save Lives by Changing Behaviors

North Carolina’s Operation Safe DRIVE Seeks to Save Lives by Changing Behaviors

By Monica Y. Greiss, Staff Development Specialist II, Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Section, North Carolina State Highway Patrol, North Carolina Department of Public Safety

This March, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Section participated in Operation Safe DRIVE (distracted, reckless, impaired, visibility, enforcement), a high-visibility, multi-state enforcement effort on interstate corridors stretching from North Carolina to Florida.

For this operation, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol partnered with the Virginia State Police, South Carolina State Transport Police, Georgia Department of Public Safety Motor Carrier Compliance Division, Florida Highway Patrol and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The operation was the first of four enforcement waves of Safe DRIVE scheduled to take place in 2021.

Operation DRIVE relies on high-visibility enforcement to change driver behavior to achieve the primary goal of eliminating traffic fatalities by reducing crashes involving large trucks, buses and passenger vehicles. In preparation for this operation, officers used various resources to determine commercial motor vehicle crash trends on selected interstate corridors.

A minimum of a Level III Inspection is required for each commercial motor vehicle that is stopped for a traffic enforcement violation during the operation. Participating members remain visible in their assigned interstate corridor during their shift, as high visibility is a major component to aid in changing driver behavior. The goal of changing unsafe driving behavior will assist in the crash reduction of commercial and non-commercial motor vehicles on our roadways. n