With more than one out of every 10 trucks operating with brake-related violations serious enough to take it off the road, we talked to Kerri Wirachowsky, the director of CVSA’s roadside inspection program, about some of the recurring questions she faces regarding brake violations.
1. How can I be put out of service for one service brake violation? The last time it happened, I was allowed to continue my trip.
The out-of-service criteria for service brakes is broken into two parts. You have service brakes over the entire combination, but there’s a separate section just for the steering axle brakes.
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Steering axle brake violations are more critical than those on the rest of the combination. If you have a brake on the left and you don’t have a brake on the right, it’s going to pull to the left. So if you have an inoperative brake on the steer axle, that truck is automatically put out of service.
If that same inoperative brake is on the second or third axle of a tractor, that one inoperative brake will not exceed the 20% calculation for the out-of-service criteria. [No more than 20% of the vehicle’s brakes can be defective.] Therefore, that truck will leave with an inoperative brake violation on the tractor, but it is allowed to continue to its destination.
If I also have a brake out of adjustment or a contaminated lining somewhere else in that combination, the inspector is going to use that inoperative brake as one defective brake towards the 20%. Now I have two service brakes that are in violation, and that, too, will place the vehicle out of service.
2. How can I receive multiple violations for the same brake?
Let’s say you’ve got a contaminated lining, and it’s inoperative, and the brake is out of adjustment – it’s bottoming out, and the linings are not contacting the drum.
That will only account for one defective brake. I have three violations, and they’re all going to be documented on the inspection report. But it’s only counted as one defect towards that 20% out-of-service calculation. The driver can go and repair that at his final destination.
If I find another brake that has a violation, now he’s out of service for two defective brakes.
All of those violations get documented, and all of those have to be repaired.
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