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South Dakota Ranks High in Motor Carrier Safety

A study from a national trucking research firm puts South Dakota in the top ten nationally for motor carrier safety and enforcement. The American Transportation Research Institute says a variety of factors put the state in ninth place.

John Broers is the commander for the motor carrier division of the South Dakota Highway Patrol. He says very few crashes involving commercial motor vehicles occur in the state. He says the study shows that those who operate trucks in South Dakota take care of the equipment, and drivers are qualified to handle the large vehicles.  
 
“And it says that the enforcement end is targeting the right things to help prevent those crashes from ever occurring,” Broers says. “It also says that we use the money we put into that program very wisely.  We do a lot of inspections for every dollar that we put into that program, so we’re using the taxpayer’s money very efficiently.”

Broers says there’s always room for improvement. The goal is to stop crashes before they even occur.