Troopers plan to target commercial vehicles

State troopers are targeting commercial vehicles during October as part of "Operation Good Guys," their six-month project for public safety.

The project started in July with a crackdown on speeders, as troopers used such enforcement methods as posting an officer with a radar gun behind a hay wagon on Route 140 near Westminster.

This month's chapter of the project is called "Drive to Survive." Only a small portion of Maryland's designated truck route system passes through Carroll County, but some highways within the county -- including Interstate 70 -- carry a large volume of commercial traffic daily, police said.

Three fatal accidents, 37 personal injury accidents and 55 property damage crashes in Carroll involved commercial vehicles during 1992.

The majority of commercial vehicle collisions in the county are caused by failure to reduce speed, failure to grant right of way or failure to drive in a single lane, according to state police.

Troopers have been instructed to be alert this month for traffic infractions involving commercial vehicles and to strictly enforce the law, officials said.