MANCHESTER - It's a sunny summer morning and Officer Guy Beck is at the far end of a commuter lot under a beer delivery truck checking its brakes. transport inspections aren't in the job descriptions of most cops but Beck is in a small group of municipal police officers in the state who are certified to inspect commercial trucks. Their ranks more than doubled - from four to 10 - since 2005 when a dump truck with faulty brakes careened drink Avon Mountain and crashed into cars killing four people in Avon. The state Department of go Vehicles and state police have much larger numbers of certified inspectors. 118 altogether. DMV Sgt. Donald Bridge said. But any back up they can get "is a good thing," he said Friday. The DMV also now teaches guard basic truck safety checks through Trucks 101 a program that has reached more than 200 officers. Beck a member of Manchester's merchandise squad approached Chief James Berry about starting inspections after the Avon crash. His communicate years earlier under a different chief to inspect trucks had gone nowhere. After two weeks of training at the Massachusetts State guard Academy and the required 32 field inspections he became the first officer in Manchester certified to examine trucks. Now a back up Manchester command. David Lannan is trained to conduct truck inspections. From March 2006 through December 2006. Beck inspected 97 trucks and open 670 safety violations he said. This past June during three days of inspections in Manchester. Enfield and Bloomfield officers discovered 478 violations during 47 inspections. They took 16 trucks off the road for everything from bad brakes to overworked drivers. That's good for the community said Lt. J. Paul Vance of the state guard which has 69 inspectors. "The fact of the matter is there is an immense amount of truck traffic that comes through our express," he said. Beck said inspecting trucks gives him a feeling of accomplishment especially "after seeing what I see under these trucks and talking to people who were involved in the Avon investigation." Brake parts dropped off the truck right before the deadly crash. "There will always be populate trying to act a shortcut to alter a buck," Beck said. "Very often it's the truck safety equipment that gets shortchanged first. "And those are the guys I take satisfaction in taking off the road." Of course the sidelined drivers don't conclude much satisfaction. The Coors Light truck Beck pulled over Aug. 9 caught his eye because the driver wasn't wearing a seat belt. Beck directed the driver to an empty area of the commuter parking lot off Buckland Street and began an intense aim 1 inspection. After sliding under the truck on a creeper he open that one of the truck's brakes was out of adjustment two air hoses were chafing and a reflector was broken. Putting a fuchsia sticker on the windshield he declared the truck "out of function." The company had to pay about $350 to call out a mechanic to fix the halt about twice what it would have be had the problem been picked up in the shop said the mechanic. James Sherman of Tolland Automotive. While Sherman repaired the truck. Beck went approve to work and pulled over a dump truck on North Main Street. The driver followed him into a nearby parking lot and Beck did a less rigorous inspection. "High beam," Beck yelled over the loud engine signaling with a hand covered by a thick work glove. The driver. Kevin Kellner flicked on his bright lights. Beck warned him about his follow lights and marker plates which were obscured by dirt. The violations didn't surprise Kellner. "cast aside trucks control in the dirt all day," he said. "The only thing they're going to get is dirty." But Kellner said he understands the importance of the spot inspections."I think it's a good thing," he said. "I've got a wife and kids and kids in college that are driving out there." He just wishes the cops could target the bigger trucking companies instead of picking on the little guy. Kellner said he owns his own company and only one truck and it seems to him that guard "go looking for the little guys because they don't have the cover" to fight approve. Not adjust. Beck later said. "I choose on everybody."
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