This year’s North American Brake Safety Week, run by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, occurred August 25-31. CVSA recently released the results, which were similar to those of 2022 and, especially, 2023. This article will compare this year’s results to past years to show how Brake Safety Week results have changed over the years—or mostly how they haven’t.
Out-of-service violations
According to CVSA, a vehicle is put out of service (OOS) when critical vehicle inspection items are identified during an inspection. Here are the OOS results from the past three Brake Safety Weeks:
- 2024: 16,725 CMVs were inspected, and 2,149 were placed OOS for a rate of 12.8%
- 2023: 18,875 CMVs were inspected, and 2,375 were placed OOS for a rate of 12.6%
- 2022: 38,117 CMVs were inspected, and 5,059 were placed OOS for a rate of 13.3%
Lining/pad violations
Data from CVSA is available on brake lining/pad violations for 2024 and 2023, as both years focused heavily on this type of violation. Here are the brake lining/pad violation results for 2024 and 2023:
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2024: In total, there were 654 brake lining/pad violations. Below is the breakdown of these violations.
- 2023: In total, there were 682 brake lining/pad violations. Below is the breakdown of these violations.
See also: 2024 International Roadcheck results lead to more questions
Performance-based brake testers
According to CVSA, a performance-based brake tester (PBBT) is a machine that assesses a vehicle’s braking performance through direct measurements of the brake forces at each wheel end, axle, or for the whole vehicle.
- 2024: Eighteen states with PBBTs participated in Brake Safety Week with 452 inspections. There were 26 failures, which is a 5.75% out-of-service rate.
- 2023: Eleven states with PBBTs participated in Brake Safety Week with 397 inspections. There were 18 failures, which is a 4.5% out-of-service rate.
- 2022: Eleven jurisdictions with PBBTs participated in Brake Safety Week with 392 inspections. There were 29 failures, which is a 7% out-of-service rate.
