A KING 5 investigation reveals safety violations are a chronic problem for trucks working in and around the Port of Seattle. The problems are so serious officers are pulling many trucks out-of-service, an official term that means they can’t go back on the road until they are fixed.
State records show law officers pulled 13 percent of trucks across Washington out-of-service after inspections this year.
But at the Port of Seattle this year the rate was more than twice as high. 32 percent of container haulers were taken out-of-service, one out of every three inspected.
Truck inspections have historically been handled by the Seattle Department of Transportation which reduced the size of its inspection team in the past year partly due to budget cutbacks. Earlier this year, the Washington State Patrol stepped in and launched a special task force to target container trucks at Western Washington ports.
Read more at KING 5 News or click on the image above to watch the news segment.