May 15, 2008
I-5 truckers host deputies
Police riding shotgun in big rigs surprise violators
SALEM — Local police, sheriff’s deputies and Oregon State Police troopers are hitching rides with truckers to crack down on unsafe drivers in cars who cause problems for big rigs along Interstate 5.
The enforcement effort is called Ticket Aggressive Cars and Trucks, or TACT, and includes sheriff’s deputies along the freeway corridor. It is funded by a federal grant administered through the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Other officers will be flying over Interstate 5 in a plane, spotting unsafe activity, or patrolling in marked and unmarked police cars and motorcycles.
“This is putting a lot more manpower on the highway and a lot more focus on bad driving behavior,” said ODOT spokeswoman Sally Ridenour.
Several trucking companies have agreed to participate, providing trucks and drivers for the weeklong enforcement operation that will serve as a pilot program for additional safety efforts.
A Keizer man driving a white work truck became one of the first people to receive a ticket from West Linn police Officer Brad Moyle.
The man had been driving too close to a semi-truck with a sheriff’s deputy in the cab. When the work truck followed the semi off I-5 at an exit, the deputy jumped out at the traffic light and waved the driver over to the shoulder, then called Moyle to come issue a $242 ticket for following too closely.
There were 2,552 crashes involving commercial trucks and passenger cars from 2004 to 2006, according to ODOT. Of those, 64 percent were the passenger car’s fault.
During the last decade, three of every four people who died in crashes between trucks and passenger cars when the car’s driver was at fault were riding in the cars.
The pilot program covers the section of I-5 from Woodburn north to the I-205 interchange. If it proves successful, ODOT will sponsor other TACT efforts elsewhere on Oregon’s interstate system. “The Salem area will probably be the next area we go to,” Ridenour said.
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