Every year, safety professionals across North America wait for the results of Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA)’s Operation Safe Driver Week (OSDW) with keen interest. These results serve as a critical barometer of driver behavior and reveal trends that both fleets and passenger-vehicle drivers can learn from. The 2025 campaign results were released in October of this year, and they tell a story worth unpacking.
In this post, we’ll break down the 2025 data, highlight key take-aways, and provide practical insight for carriers, safety managers, and individual drivers.
Operation Safe Driver Week is a week-long, enforcement-based traffic-safety initiative led by the CVSA. From July 13 to 19, 2025, law-enforcement officers across the United States and Canada focused on unsafe driving behaviors, including speeding, distracted driving, seat-belt violations, and other high-risk categories.
This collaboration among regulators, law enforcement, and motor-carrier stakeholders aims to reduce roadway fatalities and injuries by promoting safer driver behavior. National agencies like the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) support the program and use its findings to guide future policy.
Here are some of the headline numbers released by CVSA:
A total of 8,739 vehicles were pulled over during the week.
Law-enforcement officers issued 2,504 tickets/citations and 3,575 warnings to commercial-motor-vehicle (CMV) and passenger-vehicle (PV) drivers.
For CMVs: 3,230 warnings and 1,839 tickets/citations. For PVs: 345 warnings and 665 tickets/citations.
These numbers illustrate the scope and scale of the enforcement effort—and highlight persistent problem-areas in driver behavior.
The fine print of the report breaks down infractions by type. Below are the most prominent categories for 2025.
This year’s primary focus:
20 citations and 53 warnings for reckless/careless/inattentive driving.
Of these, 12 citations and 47 warnings were to CMV drivers; 8 citations and 6 warnings to PV drivers.
Take-away: Even though the total count here was relatively low, this behavior poses significant risk and remains a key target for enforcement.
By far the most common violation:
1,249 warnings and 917 citations for speeding.
CMV drivers: 1,073 warnings and 491 citations; PV drivers: 176 warnings and 416 citations.
Speeding significantly reduces a driver’s ability to react to hazards and increases crash-severity. According to NHTSA statistics, speeding was a contributing factor in 29 % of U.S. traffic fatalities in 2023.
Why this matters: Faster speeds make steering around obstacles harder, increase stopping distance, and raise impact force in a collision.
Another top violation:
219 warnings and 264 tickets/citations overall.
CMV drivers: 204 warnings and 248 citations. PV drivers: 15 warnings and 16 citations.
An estimated 9 % of U.S. drivers don’t wear seat belts; among CMV drivers, it’s about 14 %.
Important note: Seat-belt usage is the most effective single intervention to protect drivers and passengers.
Distracted driving remains a serious concern:
129 warnings and 116 tickets/citations for texting or handheld-device use (22 warnings and 37 citations for PV drivers; 107 warnings and 79 citations for CMV drivers).
Studies show that using a phone while driving affects visual, manual, and cognitive performance—all at once.
22 citations and 14 warnings for CMV drivers, and 5 citations and 4 warnings for PV drivers involving drugs/alcohol use.
Other violations included:
Failure to obey traffic-control devices: 574 warnings and 296 citations for PV/CMV combined.
Following too closely: 48 warnings and 24 citations.
Bottom line: High-risk behaviors beyond speed and distraction continue to demand attention.
For fleets, these results underscore the need for proactive safety culture—one that doesn’t just rely on external enforcement, but monitors driver behavior internally through telematics, coaching, and ongoing training.
Agencies like FMCSA use data from initiatives like OSDW to shape compliance priorities. For example, seat-belt violations and speeding remain enforcement red-flags. More citations mean higher risk of audits, fines, or even out-of-service orders.
Excessive citations and warnings can lead to increased insurance premiums and reputational damage. Drivers representing companies are held to high standards—especially when sharing roads with large trucks.
Beyond numbers, every warning or citation reflects a behavior that causes crashes, injuries, or fatalities. According to NHTSA data, tens of thousands of lives could be saved annually by better behavior.
Prioritize Speed-Management Programs
Tailor driver training modules around speeding risk—especially given its dominant share in offenses.
Incorporate real-time telematics or GPS alerts to curtail above-limit events.
Reinforce Seat-Belt Usage Every Day
Make seat-belt checks part of your pre-trip inspections and talk about it in toolbox meetings.
Celebrate 100 % belt-use days to reinforce positive behavior.
Attack Distracted-Driving Culture
Mandate hands-free systems and implement no-device-use policies.
Use coaching moments to reinforce the dangers of manual, visual, and cognitive distractions.
Link Coaching to Enforcement Data
Use enforcement outcomes like those in the OSDW as learning tools. Show your drivers the real numbers and ask: Could this have been me?
Build internal dashboards that track warnings and citations by violation category.
Make Human-Trafficking Awareness a Part of Driver Safety
OSDW found 1,681 awareness- and education-activities on human-trafficking during the week.
Integrate training on what to watch for (e.g., unusual pickup/drop-off patterns, multiple occupants, separated commodities) and connect to resources like the U.S. Department of Transportation’s TIP 411 system.
Pre-Trip Checklist Enhancements
Add categories for seat-belt use, handheld-device policy acknowledgment, and speed-limit review.
Create a weekly enforcement-review meeting where you compare internal infractions vs. national OSDW data.
Q: Does OSDW data reflect all roadways or just commercial vehicles?
A: While OSDW focuses on both commercial and passenger vehicles, the bulk of enforcement stops are in commercial-motor-vehicle operations. That means fleets need to pay attention—but the findings apply broadly to any driver sharing the road.
Q: My fleet already monitors speed and distraction. Does this still matter?
A: Yes. The data serves as an external benchmark and reminds us of the categories enforcement is aggressively targeting. It also helps you prioritize internal policy updates.
Q: Are these results unique to the U.S.?
A: No—while the majority of data is from U.S. jurisdictions, Canadian jurisdictions participate as well and contribute to the analysis. The risks and behaviors are shared across the continent.
Unsafe driving behaviors such as speeding, seat-belt non-use, and distracted driving continue to dominate not just in enforcement campaigns—but in crash statistics, too. For example, speeding was a factor in 29 % of U.S. traffic fatalities in 2023. Initiatives like OSDW serve a dual purpose: they spotlight what remains problematic and push the industry toward safer operations.
For motor-carrier safety professionals, that means using these findings not only to react—but to proactively design safety programs around behavior change, real-time monitoring, and continuous reinforcement.
The 2025 Operation Safe Driver Week results provide a timely, data-rich look into how drivers at all levels performed—and where the biggest safety risks remain. If you’d like expert guidance and tailored solutions to apply these findings to your operations, detail your program with Sentry Road and we’ll help you translate insight into action.
Data and findings referenced in this article are sourced from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s 2025 Operation Safe Driver Week Results