I-Team investigates overweight trucks

DEERFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - You drive next to those huge commercial trucks everytime you're on the highway.

You trust their safe, but as 22News I-Team reporter Laura Hutchinson shows us, some of them aren't.

It's not uncommon for police to discover trucks are either not working properly or overloaded with cargo, putting themselves and everyone else on the road at risk.

It could be a truck driver's worst nightmare, or it could save their lives.

Massachusetts state troopers stop and inspect thousands of commercial trucks every year and every year there are violations.

According to an analysis of U.S. Department of Transportation data, more than 3100 people died in accidents involving heavy or overweight trucks in 2009.

State inspectors told the 22News I-Team it all comes down to money. Truck companies will sometimes overload their cargo in order to turn what would be two trips, into just one trip.

The 22News I-Team was there as dozens of trucks in Western Mass. were pulled off the highway, inspected and weighed. We discovered some of the trucks on the road, shouldn't be there at all.

Like this one, which weighed in 51 hundred pounds overweight, that was before the full inspection.

Minutes later, the sound of a tire leaking lead inspectors to pull another one over, but further inspection found 2 out of 4 breaks weren't working at all.

"The truck stops, that's all I can say," said Tim Lynch, Mansfield Paper driver.

Lynch was also ordered off the road.

"Is it putting you out of your way" 22News asked.

"I get paid by the hour I don't care," Lynch added.

Trooper Jonathan Bates says having a number of violations in one inspection like this is not uncommon and truckers will sometimes go to great lengths to avoid them.

"Some guys will drive an hour or two hours out of their way just to avoid us when we're open. They shouldn't look at it as us against them, they should look at it as I may find something that will allow that guy to be able to go home at the end of the night," Bates said.

Violators can face thousands of dollars in violations, and time off the road, not working, but leaving them on the road could come at an even higher price.

"He may be the person who kills our families," Bates said.

To find out how you can help keep dangerous trucks off the road, log onto trucksafety.org .