Best way to avoid inspection in Indiana: Slow down

In the November issue, Overdrive detailed the state with the highest ratio of maintenance violations for every speeding violation. That’s Texas, where inspectors’ priorities are tilted heavily toward the truck.

But in a reverse of that priority, speeding violations in Indiana accounted for more than 14 percent of all violations marked on inspection reports during 2013.

With speeding accounting for nearly half of all moving-type infractions marked on inspection reports in 2013, Indiana ranks first in the nation for those violations, which contribute to carriers’ scores in the Unsafe Driving category of the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program’s Safety Measurement System.

If you want to avoid an inspection in Indiana, keep a close eye on the speedometer when traveling in and out of the state, and stay well within all traffic laws. Indiana State Police 1^st Sgt. Tyler Utterback, leading the state’s truck-enforcement program, puts it this way: “I have no problem with motor carriers being afraid of getting stopped in Indiana.”

Indiana’s priorities are weighted heavily toward changing what it sees as primary factors behind truck crashes. That’s an understandable goal, given Indiana ranked second in our 2013 CSA’s Data Trail analysis for truck-crash intensity (crashes per lane-mile of highway system).

Oregon, with the same goal, puts more effort behind hours violations as an influencer of what it sees as dangerous driver behavior. However, Indiana’s targeted enforcement approach focuses on moving-type violations.