Photos: CVSA Roadcheck

Major Pete Landon (in uniform) helped lead the Maryland State Police's effort to inspect commercial vehicles and drivers at FedEx Field, which sits but a few miles off I-95/495, which he says is one of the state's leading highway "crash corridors."

Anne Ferro, Administrator, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (seen to the right in this photo) participated in a Level I inspection as part of the Roadcheck 2010 "kick off" event. "Each and every day – whether you see them or not – thousands of highly trained safety inspectors are removing unsafe truck and bus drivers and their vehicles from the highways," she said. "We are grateful to you for the important role you play in keeping our roads safe."

Francis “Buzzy” France, president of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), which has sponsored Roadcheck yearly since 1988, stressed that commercial vehicle and driver safety enforcement must be a daily and ongoing commitment. "These roadside inspections are not just occurring over the next 72 hours, they are being done each and every day – nearly 4 million times a year," he said."

Rob Abbott, vp-safety policy for the American Trucking Associations, noted that Roadcheck inspections are not performed randomly -- they deliberately target carriers with poor safety records as well as vehicles that seem ill cared for by their operators. He also noted that the numbers continue to improve every year, validating the trucking industry's commitment to safety. In 2009. out of all inspections, 95.6% of drivers passed – the highest passage rate ever attained over Roadcheck’s 22 year history. In terms of commercial vehicles, 80.4% passed with 19.6% placed out of service (OOS) – the lowest OOS rate posted since 1996.

Hundreds of law enforcement personnel swarmed the FedEx inspection site, with Maryland State Police troopers fortified with extra hands from the state comptroller’s office, Maryland department of the environment, and other state agency's. They were expected to inspect some 700 vehicles during the first day of Roadcheck alone at the FedEx Field site, with some 30% of them projected to be placed out of service for vehicle or driver violations.

Maryland State Police troopers also conducted "noise inspections" at FedEx Field as well, making sure truck engine brakes did not exceed set decibel levels.

To help manage the inspection site, the Maryland State Police relied on its one-of-a-kind "command vehicle." Built on a 2005 Kenworth T-2000 Class 8 tractor chassis, the truck is 56-feet long and weighs out at 62,000 lbs fully loaded with 300 gallons of fuel and 300 gallons of fresh water. It's equipped with a 625 hp Caterpillar engine, 18-speed transmission, and two 20 kilowatt diesel-fired generators to keep its computers, cellular, video, and satellite links up and running.

As the FedEx Field parking lot lacked the traditional "inspection pits" for checking the undercarriage of commercial vehicles, inspectors resorted to using "crawlers" to slide under the trucks and trailers to make sure every component -- especially the brakes -- was in good working order.