West Virginia’s Public Service Commission is involved in a special 72-hour international big truck inspection effort that started Tuesday morning.

Roadcheck 2022 ,an annual truck safety event, is underway. At the same time, U.S. officials are projecting a 13 percent increase in deadly crashes involving at least one large truck when final numbers for 2021 are available.

The focus of this year's international inspections is close to where the rubber meets the road. It's on the wheels and the wheel hubs. Wheel end components support the heavy loads carried by commercial motor vehicles, maintain stability and are critical for braking. Violations involving wheel end components historically account for about one quarter of the vehicle out-of-service violations discovered during international road checks.

Inside the scale house at the Hurricane weigh station, sensors can read the license plate, hazardous material placard and detect flat tires and brake problems. On Tuesday, the 117th flat tire was detected there since February.

"What we're trying to do is to make sure that the driving public is safe,” Charlotte Lane, chair of the state Public Service Commission, said. “All of the other people on the roads are also safe and the purpose of this 72-hour road check is a coordinated effort all across North America including Mexico and Canada."

Short 80,000 drivers, the trucking industry is trying to hire new ones.

A 28-year veteran in commercial motor vehicle enforcement has not seen a problem from that yet.

“A lot of times these (new) drivers will be involved in an accident,” Capt. Craig Pauley with PSC Enforcement said. "They're not familiar with the equipment as much. I haven't seen a big change in it yet. That could change in the future."

The stepped-up inspections continue until 11:59 p.m. Thursday.