The Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division (CVED) of the Indiana State Police has released the final results of its two week project "Strike Force," This project was coordinated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and focused on the safety of passenger carriers operating in Indiana.

The team of specially trained motor carrier inspectors, who are assigned to CVED, traveled the state inspecting passenger carriers. There were 95 passenger carrier vehicles inspected and a total of 106 violations were found during this project. Of those 106 violations, 22 violations were out-of-service violations. When an out of service violation is discovered during the inspection process, the vehicle is deemed to be unsafe to haul passengers and cannot be used again until the violation has been corrected and the vehicle has been reinspected. Of the 22 out-ofservice violations, nine were for brakes, two exhaust leaks, and one each for tires, suspension, frame work, and lighting.

Three of the carriers inspected were issued out of service orders pursuant to Indiana code 8-2.1-25-6. A carrier that has 50% or more of its vehicles that fail inspection is put out of service and may not operate again until all violations are corrected and they have been re-inspected by inspectors from the Indiana State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division.

According to Major Tom Melville, Commander of the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division, the Indiana State Police will continue its efforts to be pro active within the commercial passenger carrier industry. The goal of these efforts is to reduce the number of crashes involving passenger carriers, therefore, ensuring the safety of those who travel by passenger carrier.