PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Oregon Department of Transportation says 122 commercial vehicles found illegally passing a weigh station on the I-84 have been ticketed, with 25% of the drivers stopped being temporarily placed out-of-service.
Trucks weighing over 10,000 pounds are required to make their way to an open weigh station when one is available, according to federal law. However, officials say many drivers bypass these stations altogether.
“The goal of this operation was to remove fatigued and unqualified drivers from Oregon roads to prevent fatal commercial truck collisions with the traveling public,” said ODOT’s Commerce and Compliance Interim Division Administrator Carla Phelps.
ODOT also discovered false logs with electric logging devices used to incorrectly track the employees’ hours.
The federal government has regulations in place controlling the number of hours drivers may log, depending on whether they are hauling passengers or property. ODOT said many of the drivers they investigated were logging far beyond the number of hours, without logging the correct breaks necessary between long hours.
