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August 16, 2000 1:50 PM, EDT

The Department of Transportation said ug. 9 it would set the first-ever standards for the use of performance-based brake testers on commercial trucks, which could give law enforcement agencies a major new tool in the drive for safer highways.

	Radlinski & Associates
	A portable performance-based brake tester like this one could speed up roadside truck inspections.

And in contrast to many of DOT’s recent forays into standard-setting, the agency’s announcement brought forth mostly praise from trucking and law enforcement agencies.

The standards would allow enforcement groups to use the brake testers to determine the effectiveness of trucks’ braking systems. At present, inspectors have to rely on visual inspections of the parts of a vehicle’s braking system.

Capt. Shelton Hunt of the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement division of Tennessee’s Department of Safety, said the performance-based brake testers would offer an improvement because it could “speed up the testing and give us an accurate method of checking brakes — not just a visual that depends on the experience of the inspector.”

For the full story, see the Aug. 14 print edition of Transport Topics. .