Program Mission

The Kansas Highway Patrol has set a goal to reduce the number of fatality, injury, and property damage collisions. With the support of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the Highway Patrol is instituting the Trucks on Patrol for Safety (TOPS) program. This program recognizes that passenger vehicles contribute to the overall occurrence of collisions with large trucks. The TOPS program has the primary goal of enforcing state laws and federal regulations in and around heavy vehicles. Another goal is to educate the motoring public to the dangers around large trucks.

The TOPS program provides troopers an opportunity to ride with professional semi truck drivers to see what the driver observes on a regular basis. Industry members have donated the trucks, trailers, and drivers that the Patrol will be using. The companies partner with the Patrol for a week in a specific region of the state to make these resources available. Troopers will board a large truck equipped with a temporary five-camera system that records violations by both passenger vehicles and other large trucks. Once these violations are observed, the trooper riding in the large truck will relay information to other troopers in KHP patrol units who will enforce crash-causing violations observed.

The first seven-week deployment of the program began April 9. During a second seven-week deployment this summer, violations observed in the first deployment will be re-evaluated to determine the program's effectiveness.

Statistics to Date

April 7-April 25, 2008

Passenger Vehicle Violations

Large Truck Enforcement Violations