Random vehicle safety checks will occur in the City of Bartlesville in a week from Friday.

According to Sergeant Jim Warring with the Bartlesville Police Department, the BPD's Traffic Unit will be conducting these random vehicle safety checks at random check point locations throughout the City of Bartlesville on Friday, March 13th. He said the BPD will be going by the standards of the National Highway Traffic Safety Act.

Traffic laws in the State of Oklahoma will also be obeyed while the BPD is obeying the rules and regulations from the NHTSA. Sgt. Warring said if anyone has any questions, they can always go to the NHTSA website for more information.

When looking at the website, a list of "Uniform Guidelines for State Highway Safety Programs" did appear. The guidelines read as follows:

"Each State should have a program for periodic inspection of all registered vehicles to reduce the number of vehicles with existing or potential conditions that may contribute to crashes or increase the severity of crashes that do occur, and should require the owner to correct such conditions.

1. An inspection program would provide, at a minimum, that:

a. Every vehicle registered in the State is inspected at the time of initial registration and on a periodic basis thereafter as determined by the State based on evidence of the effectiveness of inspection programs.

b. The inspection is performed by competent personnel specifically trained to perform their duties and certified by the State.

c. The inspection covers systems, subsystems, and components having substantial relation to safe vehicle performance.

d. Each inspection station maintains records in a form specified by the State, which includes at least the following information:

i. Class of vehicle.

ii. Date of inspection.

iii. Make of vehicle.

iv. Model year.

v. Vehicle identification number.

vi. Defects by category.

vii. Identification of inspector.

viii. Mileage or odometer reading.

2. The program should be periodically evaluated by the State and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should be provided with an evaluation summary."

You can find the PDF from the website here.

Sgt. Warring said some people have been worried that the BPD would be violating their 4th Amendment rights, which he said is not their intention in any way, shape or form. He said that driving is a privilege, not a right, because you have to go through a process to get a driver's license.

You have to sign your signature that you will obey the rules and regulations of the highways or be cited for any violations you might be involved in. Sgt. Warring said you also have to have proper insurance in order to drive. He said the reason these licenses and the insurance are in place is because you are driving on public access roadways, and it is to make sure that you, and others, are safe if an accident occurs.

These will not be DUI checkpoints and the operation will begin at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, March 13th. Sgt. Warring said the goal is to make sure drivers are obeying all safety laws and that vehicles are in safe operational order. He said they will keep obeying the national and state regulations throughout the day.

There will be signage in place to inform you as to when you are pulling into a check point. Sgt. Warring said the BPD hopes that this will be a waking up moment for some people to fix things like a cracked windshield or bald tires. He said they want you to have a vehicle that operates as safe as possible.