Some two-thirds of trucks pulled over in the region last week during a roadside inspection by the province’s Commercial Vehicle Safety Enforcement had problems that needed to be remedied on the spot.

The focused inspection check took place in Vernon, Sicamous and Salmon Arm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The focused aspect of the check is what led to such a high percentage of problems, explains acting district manager in the Okanagan-Shuswap, Denis Doyle.

“It’s two out of three because it’s a targeted or focused inspection. It could be because you’re ignoring brand new Peterbilts,” he said, explaining the inspectors tend to pull over vehicles they think might have problems. “It doesn’t reflect the state of the industry at large.”

The focused inspection last week targeted brake problems.

Commercial Transportation Inspector Charlie Briskham, who was at the side of the Trans-Canada Highway Thursday just west of the Salmon River bridge, said they weren’t finding many brake problems but lots of minor housekeeping issues – and the odd major one.

“Yesterday we found a dump truck with 12 of 12 bolts loose on a cross member,” he said, explaining that’s just above the drive axle. “There’s always that nice big one that makes your day, to get them off the street.”

Doyle said the biggest problem they’ve discovered on the Trans-Canada Highway is not faulty equipment.

“The biggest safety concern we found is trucks speeding on corners. There’s nothing wrong with the equipment load – the drivers just takes it upon themselves to speed on corners.”

He said the inspectors are peace officers who have radar in their cars, but their focus is mechanical inspections. And while the inspections help to keep a relatively high standard in terms of equipment, he said the conduct and owners of trucking businesses are “pretty well unregulated.”

“It’s the individual choices of the drivers that cause the problems.”