Delta police partnered with several other agencies this week for its annual inspection blitz to get unsafe trucks off the road.
A combined 130 participants - officers, civilians and volunteers - from 18 agencies came together over three days for the sixth annual initiative.
The blitz aims to inspect as many commercial vehicles as possible with a focus on those that might not be properly maintained and could ultimately pose a danger on the road.
Teams were set up at seven locations around Delta from Tuesday through Thursday.
"One of the strategic goals of the Delta Police Department is to make Delta's roads the safest in B.C.," said department spokesperson Const. Ciaran Feenan. "Delta has one of the highest, if not the highest, ratio in B.C. of commercial vehicles transiting its roads on a daily basis, therefore this will be one of the largest initiatives of its type in the province."
Sgt. Kevin Jones, who heads Delta's traffic unit, said the community sees about 6,000 to 8,000 trucks on area roads and highways every day.
At each site trucks were put through a preliminary visual inspection and any that looked like they could have problems were put through a second, more thorough inspection.
"The inspectors will be using their expertise to focus on vehicles that are not likely to pass an inspection," Feenan said.
On the first day alone, about 5,000 trucks were seen at the seven inspection sites. Of that, 273 were given a secondary inspection and 95 were designated out of service. That's a 34 per cent out of service rate for those trucks given a secondary inspection.
The numbers from inspections on Wednesday and Thursday were not available by Optimist deadline yesterday afternoon.
Last year, the department saw a 38 per cent out of service rate during the inspection blitz, which was a slight decrease from 42 per cent in 2010.
Delta is one of the few police departments that maintains a dedicated team of vehicle inspectors.
, however for the annual inspection blitz, it partners with several outside agencies, including the Integrated Road Safety Unit; Surrey, Richmond and Deas Island RCMP; Surrey bylaw officers; Vancouver, New Westminster and Port Moody police departments; and the provincial Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement (CVSE) branch.
"It's a really good partnership," said Steven Haywood, regional manager for CVSE, which, he said, performs about 30,000 truck inspections annually around the province.
"This is a great example of federal, provincial and municipal agencies working together with community support to increase the safety level on our roads," Feenan said.
