‘It’s really disturbing’: Semi found falling apart just one of thousands taken off the roads

By Abbie Petersen

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    NEBRASKA (KETV) — Iowa Troopers say this is one for the books, a tractor-trailer nearly in pieces.

It was on the way from Omaha to Chicago when a trooper pulled it over near Des Moines.

Troopers here in Nebraska say it’s not surprising.

They took thousands of commercial trucks off the road last year.

“It’s really disturbing that someone that is a professional driver, a holder of a commercial driver’s license, would take to the highway with a piece of equipment like that,” said Kent Grisham, President of the Nebraska Trucking Association.

He says equipment like this goes against everything they stand for.

“They are taught in their driving training from the very beginning about how to do inspections on their equipment,” said Grisham.

The Nebraska State Patrol says it puts the brakes on dangerous big rigs every year.

Troopers found plenty of problems last summer.

During this surprise inspection in July, they took 17 vehicles out of service near 210th and West Center.

That same month in York, they inspected 65 vehicles. Troopers took more than half of those off the road. And they found nearly 200 violations.

NSP says troopers are trained to recognize situations that would lead to inspection, which is a 37-step process. They look for everything from blown tires to broken springs.

“Size and weight factor greatly into the seriousness in a crash situation. And so basically, we want to make sure that the vehicles and the drivers of these larger commercial motor vehicles are operating to them as safely as they,” said Lt. Mike Maytum.

In the span of about a year, troopers performed nearly 8,000 vehicle inspections. NSP says it took about half out of service.

“Anytime you imagine that half of the vehicles on the roadway have some kind of a serious safety factor that would require us to stop you, that probably is a little disconcerting,” said Maytum.

Lt. Maytum says not all of these violations look like this.

“Not every safety violation is something where the wheels are literally falling off the truck. There are simple things that cause us to stop those vehicles too,” said Maytum.

NSP wants to add in spite of these statistics, the majority of crashes are not caused by vehicle failure. The most common reasons fall on the driver – speeding, following too close or distracted driving.

NSP says three-quarters of the time, accidents are due to poor driving by a passenger car, not a commercial motor vehicle.

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