Talking Michigan Transportation
The Talking Michigan Transportation podcast features conversations with transportation experts inside and outside MDOT and will touch on anything and everything related to mobility, including rail, transit and the development of connected and automated vehicles.
Talking Michigan Transportation
Increased enforcement targets trucks in work zones
On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation about the Michigan State Police (MSP) deploying added enforcement in freeway work zones.
MC Lt. Jason Zylstra of MSP’s Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division (CVED) explains why they launched special enforcement in segments with major work like the heavily traveled I-96 in Ionia County.
MSP observes that 97 percent of at-fault crashes involving large trucks and buses are caused by driver behavior.
Zylstra also discusses:
- The need for trucks to maintain a proper distance to other vehicles.
- The dangers of trucks blocking lanes in zipper-merge zones and why law enforcement issues citations for that behavior.
- Special inspections for tires, equipment and other components of commercial vehicles.
Hello and welcome to the Talking Michigan Transportation Podcast. I'm Jeff Cranston. We are still in the midst of road construction season in Michigan and there are a lot of work zones across the state on freeways and bridges and minor roads everywhere. There's been a lot of concern about a number of crashes in work zones On one project in particular, rebuilding about 11 miles of I-96 in Ionia County.
Speaker 1:Recently the state police and their commercial vehicle enforcement division have decided to put some extra attention on commercial vehicles, meaning the trucks that drive these corridors and have been involved in some of these crashes. So I spoke with Lieutenant Jason Zylstra at the Michigan State Police in that commercial vehicle enforcement division about this extra enforcement and what they're doing and what they're seeing out there and what brought it on. So he had a lot of interesting things to say about it and I think you'll be interested in knowing why they're focusing on this and I hope you enjoy the conversation. So once again I'm with Motor Carrier Lieutenant Jason Zalstra of the Michigan State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division. Lieutenant Zalstra, thank you so much for taking time to talk today about this. It's a very important issue and I appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Good afternoon, sir. I appreciate your time. I'm excited to give my perspective on it, let you know what the state police is doing to curb these efforts and explain a little bit about the mission of the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division with Inside the State Police.
Speaker 1:So, as you know, this particular project highlighted in the news release, the work on I-96 in Ionia County has seen a number of crashes throughout the summer in the work zone. One particularly bad one, at least one that caught a lot of the attention at MDOT, was a former MDOT engineer who was waiting in the traffic queue in the westbound lanes just west of Portland and he was killed when a truck came up on the stopped traffic. The truck driver was also killed. That got a lot of attention. But there's been several others and I want you to talk about what you can do with special enforcement to try to really put a spotlight on these things.
Speaker 3:Yeah, unfortunately.
Speaker 3:I mean every death that we experience when it comes to a traffic crash is regrettable and tragic and not anything we ever want to see and by no means is acceptable.
Speaker 3:And just another example, and not to move any light away from the loss that MDOT faced, but within the last three weeks we had a young woman that was traveling along the highway to her bridal shower for her unborn child and was killed in a traffic accident. So it's like it's hitting and it's tragic by every means. And obviously the Michigan State Police, specifically the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division we are out there every day but we have limitations to what we can do when it comes to enforcement just because of bodies and hours of work that we have in general. So that's specifically why we're working with MDOT and our other partners, that we have Haas Alert, drivewise, the various news agencies in the area to get out the word about the serious issues that we're having there, because this isn't a one-year project. This is something that has already expanded since this project has started and it's going to go all the way through roughly the end of 2027.
Speaker 1:Yeah, talk about HazAlert and some of that technology and if you see more commercial drivers, you know taking advantage of that sort of thing.
Speaker 3:So HazAlert is a relatively new technology. It's basically a GPS transponder system that some of the public service agencies and public safety agencies primarily police, ems and fire agencies are putting in their vehicles. Basically, for the law enforcement example is when we activate our emergency lights we pop up as a GPS pinpoint and then HaasAlert is linked up with Waze and Apple Maps and I believe it's the FCA Chrysler products. So it'll actually pop up and say that there is law enforcement ahead, which is very similar to like what you'd see in a Google navigation application. But it's just another alert. It's not designed to take away the attention from driving. It's just designed to give another alert that there's an emergency response vehicle or that there's a public service vehicle in the area, so that the drivers can be a little bit more aware, just improve and increase their situational awareness.
Speaker 1:So you would already get those kinds of warnings on, you know, in Google Maps or Apple Maps or Waze, but it sounds like. But that's all based on crowdsourcing, so maybe the Haas is more timely, more accurate. Is that the idea?
Speaker 3:Yep Haas is real time GPS accurate. Is that the idea? Yep Haas is real-time, gps-driven, so you're going to get the exact location. It's not somebody, unfortunately, adding something while they're driving or bypassing the movement restriction to their application and dropping a law enforcement or construction or a public service vehicle on the map.
Speaker 1:It's 100% real-time service vehicle on the map. It's 100% real time. So I think most people think if they know the distinction at all between the commercial vehicle enforcement division and the rest of MSP and what they do, they see your vehicles. Maybe you know pulling over trucks, maybe at the way stations you know, very focused on weight and inspections of those trucks. But tell me what you can do specifically to help with these kinds of crashes and you know to think in terms of you know what's vital to all of us for safe travel.
Speaker 3:Yep. So MSP, long tradition and nostalgia when it comes to our vehicles. We get a lot of questions from other states, residents from across the country and across the world, like why is your car the way it is Like? Why have you not ditched the 1980s, 1970s bubble, the stop, the shark fin that we have in the hood of the vehicle and that very specific and idyllic color that we have for the vehicles?
Speaker 3:Our primary enforcement method has always been and always will be for the state police is visibility, just the vehicles in the area, the response and the reaction that you get from the motor in public when they see our vehicles. They don't know if we're transported across the state, if we're patrolling that area, if we're going home for the day, if we're going to get fuel, but we get a reaction to our vehicles of generally compliance, increased awareness and what we always want is increased following. Distance is our biggest fear For us in the commercial vehicle enforcement realm. We drive the exact same vehicles. We're primarily Chevy Tahos and the only difference that you're going to see was we carry some additional equipment for portably weighing vehicles for completing inspections, and then we have some identifying marks on the rear quarter panels of the vehicle that were commercial vehicle enforcement. In addition to that there's a few other specialty units within the state police.
Speaker 3:But for us our primary enforcement method is always visibility just seeing the vehicles and then your secondary is going to be just traffic enforcement. Just seeing the vehicles and then your secondary is going to be just traffic enforcement, which is the primary mission of the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division in addition to our wait station operations. So for this area specifically, it's just a matter of getting more patrol cars out in the area to increase awareness and hopefully drive that driver reaction that we want for those construction zones. As Michigan residents lifelong here, the summer animal for everybody is the orange barrel and it used to be the orange bars that you'd see out there for construction zones. So we're almost numb to construction zones in Michigan and that's becoming more of a problem ever with the addition of distractors in the car, of cell phones and portable electronic devices in general.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've talked a lot on this podcast about how the more technology we create to make us safer in our vehicles, the more we create to distract ourselves. So it's absolutely yeah, it's an ongoing thing. But I like that you mentioned assured distance because I think, I think that's probably the one you tell me. But when you pull somebody over, for that you know I mean, that's a big cause of a lot of these crashes we're talking about in the work zone. Somebody is distracted, not paying attention. Suddenly a whole bunch of cars in front of them are stopped and that's probably the majority of these kinds of crashes. But what does somebody say when you or one of your colleagues pull them over and tell them that you're not providing a sure, clear distance? Are they like well, how do you know? Or what kind of excuses?
Speaker 3:do you get so? An interesting fact when I first started with the Michigan State Police, I didn't understand this either. I just didn't have the bandwidth of the knowledge. For a commercial motor vehicle on a limited access highway, your following distance requirement is actually 500 feet, and if you break that down into something that most people can kind of visualize, that's slightly less than two football fields, which is a good distance and almost unachievable in some areas, obviously when you're in a 10th of a mile yeah, yeah it's.
Speaker 3:it's a lot of distance which makes sense and the reason why it correlates with the size of the commercial motor vehicles. Most states across the country they don't allow commercial vehicles to be in excess of 80,000 pounds unless they're specially permitted. Commercial vehicles to be in excess of 80,000 pounds unless they're specially permitted. In Michigan we allow vehicles up to 164,000 pounds, depending on their axle configuration, without any type of special permits. That's just everyday traffic. That is a very large vehicle that can be moving in excess of 65 miles per hour. Their distance required to stop and just let alone follow a vehicle safely is greatly increased to a passenger vehicle and I don't think drivers understand that, especially in the passenger world and new drivers into the CDL world. It takes them a while to understand that difference. Driving through the different weather patterns and construction zones it can be a lot for a commercial driver.
Speaker 1:Yeah, talk a little bit about these work zones and whether you're using an actually signed zipper merge or if you're just hoping that people on their own will do. You know what we supposedly learned in kindergarten, which is take turns? What do you do about these truck drivers who want to be vigilantes, who want to get out there and block people from late merging.
Speaker 3:That was going to be exactly. My next point was unfortunately, truck drivers feel like they're an informal law enforcement and they like to block the zipper lanes. They don't realize that there's a reason why MDOT engineers and sets up the roads like that to take full advantage of that full stretch of road so that it doesn't back up for multiple miles and that when you get to the designated merge point because there always is a sign that says merge you take turns. And if you take turns as you're using that zipper lane, generally traffic flows pretty unobstructed. But if we back the road up to keep the left lane clear, for whatever reason, it tends to cause other issues, whether it's following distance, people getting ran off the road or impeding traffic.
Speaker 3:Impeding traffic is what we'll generally cite a driver for and that's basically stopping that free flow of traffic anywhere on the limited access road. So we'll make contact. Hey, what are you doing? Do you understand how the road works? You're impeding traffic. Now it's time to get out of the way. You're impeding traffic, now it's time to get out of the way. Unfortunately, for us to do that and provide that education, sometimes enforcement we end up impeding traffic ourselves. So we try to expedite those situations because we're always worried in the back of our head of a secondary action to our traffic stop or to a potential traffic crash or slowdown. Just that inattention for drivers because they want to see what's going on, their curiosity they're trying to look at what's going on with that vehicle or responding to us or taking the move over slow down much more literal than it needs to be. When it comes to the move over slow down law, ideally we would prefer as law enforcement that you just slow down when you pass our vehicle.
Speaker 3:We appreciate the lane that you give us, but per the statute we need you to slow down, and that is what we would prefer. If we get you to move over the lane, that's great, but that's not always realistic, especially in a construction zone. So, at a minimum, reducing speed to give everybody increased reaction time.
Speaker 1:No, I'm glad you mentioned that because I do think that that, yeah, that move over or slow down law is still misunderstood and I don't know that I've heard anybody from MSP state it as you did as plainly that most times just slowing down would be enough. So yes, absolutely yeah, that's good to hear. But I guess I'm trying to understand the mentality of the driver of a big rig who's frustrated because they're waiting in this queue and cars that can move much more nimbly keep getting in front of them. So they feel like they've got to block the lane, because they feel like they're going backwards in some sense right, because other cars keep filling in that distance in front of them. How do you help educate them that? You know, I get it. I'm sorry, but we're all safer if you just don't do that.
Speaker 3:I mean the simplest thing to understand, like when you're trying to get into the mentality and the logic for it in the commercial vehicle world, if the vehicle's not moving, they are not making money. Am I going to make my next load? Am I going to make it on time? Am I going to make the money? In addition to that, in the commercial vehicle world they are limited to driving hours and duty hours. So traffic slowdowns, especially if they're a long one and they exceed one to two hours, that can critically affect that driver's day and his ability to make that load, affect that driver's day and his ability to make that load.
Speaker 3:There are adverse condition exemptions for commercial drivers that have to keep track of their duty hours, but when it comes to a construction slowdown, there's not, unless it's a very significant one. So they have the clock. That's, I guess, working against them, as you could say. So that increases their stress level. And then they're seeing other vehicles passing, not following the rules, the laws, the speeds, and it just compounds and it becomes very interesting of a situation that normally results in crashes, frustrated drivers, sideswipes, blocking lanes, brake checking, all the above. It's not a good situation and knowing that this is going to be this way for the next few years of construction. Unfortunately, I only see it getting worse. I don't see it getting any better, and that's why we're really focused on looking to any options that we can find or put in place to try to alleviate some of the issues that we've been seeing.
Speaker 1:We will continue the conversation right after a quick break.
Speaker 2:Even with the best planning, backups and traffic congestion can occur during road construction. This can pose hazardous situations for both motorists and construction workers, particularly when drivers are distracted. Motorists are more likely than workers to be killed or injured in work zone related incidents. Additionally, the leading causes of all work zone related crashes are distracted driving and speeding. So it's crucial to do your part in ensuring the safety of both drivers and focusing on your most important task safe driving. Slow down and stay focused.
Speaker 1:So you started this stepped-up enforcement I guess we're recording on Thursday, september 18th and you started that on Wednesday the 17th. Do you have anything to report coming out of yesterday's actions?
Speaker 3:Yes, some good and some bad report coming out of yesterday's actions. Yes, some good and some bad. The good obviously everybody in my area and that's a family member to me immediately noticed the significant increase and police activity in the area. Specifically my wife she drives to Lansing every day and she was like wow, they're really out there today and I said that's kind of the point, that's what we want. The downside unfortunately, out of the patrol zone eastbound 96, there was a fatal crash accident involving a passenger and a CMV and unfortunately it was for the exact same reason that we are there. The CMV failed to have proper following distance, made no real significant attempt to stop their vehicle and made contact with the passenger vehicle, causing death. So kind of the reason why we were there it was not an effect of us and our actual operation in the area but unfortunately it was the 100% reason that we were there and it just brings that much more attention.
Speaker 1:And I saw west of there in the rest area near Portland that you were doing some inspections right there at the rest area and I don't recall hearing or seeing about that before.
Speaker 3:Yep. So what we do, commercial vehicle enforcement division-wise, specifically in the 6th District, which I'm the District Commander of, the Grand Region division-wise, specifically in the 6th District, which I'm the District Commander of the Grand Region, we will rotate through the various rest areas within our district. It's kind of we'll call it an impromptu weigh station. Obviously we don't have weighing devices there. We can still portably weigh vehicles based off of reasonable suspicion of things that we see. But generally we run all CMV traffic through and we'll get a good look on the vehicle as they're coming through because we're checking for equipment violations. If we have turn signals that are out, just as simple as that. When one of those vehicles especially if it's a multi-unit vehicle they change lanes and you have somebody that's distracted and they don't see a turn signal, it can be catastrophic very quickly. So just simple things as lights.
Speaker 3:You'd be surprised at the amount of defective tires that we'll find. We'll have drivers I mean, when you have a lot of tires, just a five axle truck you've got 18 wheels and we allow up to 11 axles in Michigan that will have four tires per at some point the amount of tires that we identify as defective and blown out pretty significant. That causes issues with not only those scraps of rubber that are flying off, that are in the road, but it also causes weight issues on those axles once those tires go. So we're looking for those items in that area. In addition to that, it was to kind of get a little bit more awareness and slow the drivers coming into the construction zone. So kind of impromptu I don't want to call it a barrier, but we'll call it a bottleneck for commercial vehicles to slow them, to let them know that we're in the area coming into that construction zone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that seems like a really good idea. Talk a little bit about, as you know, in recent years, it seems like we've had more of these bridge hits. It's very, very easy to use all the information and websites and technology available to plan your route and know what the clearance is on your entire route. Yet these drivers still run into bridges and cause a lot of damage, and the way the laws are structured, insurance doesn't cover a lot of that, and these bridges are expensive, do you think? I mean, my personal theory has been a big part of that is just the lack of drivers and the need to get drivers on the road, and so we don't have as much experience out there and maybe as much training as we used to.
Speaker 3:In my experience, and specifically my enforcement experience and education in the Grand Rapids area, was the 100th Street Bridge Right. When I spent half of my career in Jackson on I-94, and when I came to the Grand Rapids area, that was right. During the period where the 100th Street Bridge was in the news on the radio it was getting hit basically once a week it had its own Facebook page.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was frustrating, to say the least, and almost 99% of the time other than we had a few loads that were unsecured and that things had come up, all the other situations the drivers just flat out told us they had measured the height. It was a complete, just laziness oversight, didn't care, didn't think there was an issue, wasn't worried about the bridges, and they just were like I was just driving and I hit it and that was the simple excuse and which is obviously not acceptable by any means. But then we're stuck there dealing with it. I also spent a lot of time educating local authorities and sheriff's departments.
Speaker 3:In the statute, specifically for over height, the height limit in Michigan is 13.6. The heights don't have to be posted also on the bridges. The drivers are required to do a route survey, especially if they're an over height. And then, as part of the statute, if you do write a citation or take enforcement for over height and this is why I encourage this to the locals and the sheriff's department where, within that statute, if you do write a citation or take enforcement for overhite and this is why I encourage this to the locals and the sheriff's department where, within that statute, if you get cited for an overhite, you're actually financially liable for all the damages that you cause. So it was like write the citation for that, not anything else that you can think of, but do it for that. That way it ties that company to it and we get some kind of financial relief as much as we can, being realistic with these actual companies and these carriers.
Speaker 1:Well, I think the crackdown and the emphasis that you've put on this, the media that it's generated it has to be helpful. As you know, this project is going to flip next year and they're going to do the other bound and it's going to be the same thing. We live in a society where, whatever time we expect our commute to be, whether it's 20 minutes or an hour, we don't want it to ever change, regardless of weather or construction or anything else. So I guess, if nothing else, you and your colleagues have job security.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're very nervous about this winter. A lot of us have spent a lot of time in that stretch. I'm a Grand Rapids native, so I spent a lot of time in 131 and M6 and 96. I've been working that Ionia Way Station in particular, both sides, since 2017. Both sides since 2017 and that stretch between Grand Rapids, the Lowell area and Ionia has always been very dangerous during the winter based off the weather patterns in the wind, and I'm very nervous for this winter. I very much hope people increase their following distance and drive way more cautious than them than they ever, because I just I'm nervous about it, to say the least.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, and that's why, as you know and you guys are on board, your colleagues, both in the commercial vehicle enforcement division and all of MSP with you know, crash, not accident. These are almost always because somebody was driving too fast, wasn't paying attention, wasn't giving a sure, clear distance. I mean, all those things are a result of human behavior.
Speaker 3:Yep, Yep. I've had a few guys in the past that I've dealt with traffic crashes on that have tried to give me the well, this was an act of God, I couldn't control my vehicle and it's like that is a basic requirement of driving a vehicle within Michigan and being a CDL holder. At all times you have to maintain control of your vehicle. At all times you have to give a clear and assured amount of stopping distance and at all times you are subject to what the posted speed limit is. Yes, I understand at times you might not get stopped for a few miles over. Yes, I understand at times you might not get stopped for a few miles over. But if you are driving over the speed limit and you are at fault, you're opening yourself not only up for to think that well, you know, just stuff happens. We're kind of past that point, especially with the uh, the tragedy that we've experienced in this construction zone already you do?
Speaker 1:you cringe, like I do when somebody uses the term black ice yes, I x, I absolutely do.
Speaker 3:Because I'm just like, if, if you had any hint of there being ice on the highway and you're driving a vehicle in excess of 10 000 pounds, why are you on the highway? I'll I'll chase down oversized loads that are permitted. Um, because I know I I have never seen a permitted load that doesn't say do not operate on inclement weather. And I'll see permitted loads that are over height, over weight, over width, going down the highway when it's whiteout conditions or there's ice or any type of meteorological thing. And I'm just like, what are you doing out here? Like you know, when you say these things to yourself, you've already understood there's a hazard, but yet we're still doing it and I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well said Well. Thank you, Lieutenant Zoster, for talking about these things. I really appreciate what you and your team does. It's often dangerous work, it's important work and it makes us all safer, so I appreciate that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and another point I don't think a lot of people understand this either the Commercial Veh enforcement division for the state police. Obviously we're commercial vehicle specialists. We have a single mission and it is commercial vehicles in the state. When it comes to your general law enforcement, your sheriff's department and your police and your troopers, like they're out there, but they are not experts in commercial vehicles. They can deal with commercial vehicles, but they don't have the specific and specialized training for it. I'm not saying that you're not getting service properly, but we're a very finite resource, very comparable to, like, your conservation officers within the state of Michigan. Like we're there, but we are a very finite resource. In our district, for example, the Grand Region, there is only 15 of us and I cover 14 counties from Ottawa County to Ionia County to Lake County and then all the way over to, like, the city of Ludington. It's a very large geographic area and we don't have a lot of bodies to do it.
Speaker 1:No, and that's why, because you can't put the resources into it you'd like. It really helps when you get some media play and you get some pickup from news releases for doing this kind of enforcement, because you're not out there trying to generate revenue by writing tickets. You're just trying to get people to drive slower and safer.
Speaker 3:So yeah, absolutely. I would rather spend hours helping drivers understand the proper way of securing loads on commercial vehicles than ever deal with a traffic crash or even stopping somebody for a seatbelt or speed violation. I'd rather educate than do enforcement any day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, thank you again. I hope this helps and look forward to everything else you can do to keep the heat on.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and we appreciate our partnership with MDOT and all state agencies. We're all working together to achieve the same goals. We just have different pieces of the pie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. I'd like to thank you once more for tuning in to Talking Michigan Transportation. You can find show notes and more on Apple Podcasts or Buzzsprout. I also want to acknowledge the talented people who help make this a reality each week, starting with Randy Devler, who skillfully edits the audio, Jesse Ball, who proofs the content, Courtney Bates, who posts the podcast to various platforms, and Jackie Salinas, who transcribes the audio to make it accessible to all.