SAGINAW COUNTY, MI (WNEM) -
State police are taking part in an international movement to keep you safe behind the wheel. They're inspecting semi-trucks and other commercial vehicles to make sure everything is running just fine.
"We crawl underneath the vehicle, we check the brake system violations, frame suspensions," Trooper William Beam said as he was inspecting a big rig.
Beam is with the Michigan State police motor carrier unit.
"We're gonna have you pull forward just a little bit and then we'll have you back up, just gonna see how much movement you have there," he said as he was giving the truck driver instructions during the check.
That intense check-up is part of what's being called Operation Road Check 2012. It's an annual three-day enforcement period in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
"We're checking those components to make sure that we're going to avoid any accidents potentially due to equipment that the driver may or may not know about," Beam said.
But he said it's not just what's under the truck's hood. The operation is also about what the driver is hauling.
Driver Bill Johnson is familiar with checks like these.
"I was just here the other day, went through one," Johnson said.
He said even though the wait can be a bit of a nuisance, he said he thinks "it's well worth, getting everybody up to snuff on their DOT regulations."
According to the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, roadside inspections have saved more than 220 lives, and spared more than 4,000 injuries on the road.
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