Kentucky logged 161,330 roadside inspections in the window this dataset covers, August 2023 through October 2026, which is 39 months. Those inspections produced 200,436 violations, or 1.24 per inspection. The national figure on the same measure works out to about 1.60, so on raw volume Kentucky writes fewer violations per stop than the country as a whole. Volume alone doesn't tell you much, though. The number I check first is the out-of-service share, and that is where Kentucky stands out. For a closer look at the state's full profile, see the Kentucky state insights page.
Two rates that look alike and aren't
Kentucky's out-of-service share is 24.6%. That is 49,371 out-of-service violations divided by 200,436 total violations. The national share is 17.6%, from 2,268,984 out of 12,865,241.
The same dataset also gives 30.6 out-of-service violations per 100 inspections for Kentucky. That's a different denominator. One divides by violations, the other divides by inspections. Mixing them up is the most common error I see in state comparisons, so before you quote any number, confirm which denominator it uses.
Splitting the violations by side
The aggregate hides the useful part. Break the violations into driver and vehicle categories and the picture changes.
- Driver: Kentucky recorded 79,087 driver violations, 8,826 of them out-of-service, an 11.2% share. Nationally it's 565,351 out of 2,344,141, or 24.1%.
- Vehicle: Kentucky recorded 119,271 vehicle violations, 40,545 of them out-of-service, a 34.0% share. Nationally it's 1,703,633 out of 7,100,282, or 24.0%.
- Hazmat: Kentucky recorded 553 hazmat violations, 142 out-of-service, a 25.7% share. Nationally it's 15,088 out of 56,752, or 26.6%. The Kentucky sample is small, so I wouldn't read much into the difference.
Kentucky's driver out-of-service share is roughly 13 points below national. Its vehicle share is roughly 10 points above. The vehicle side is also a larger part of Kentucky's total, at about 59.5% of violations compared with about 55.2% nationally.
That explains the aggregate. Weight the two sides by their shares of total violations and you get about 0.395 × 11.2 + 0.595 × 34.0 ≈ 24.6, which matches the headline number. The vehicle side is pulling the state's overall rate up, and the driver side is pulling it down, but the vehicle side is heavier.
What a vehicle out-of-service rate can and can't tell you
A vehicle out-of-service violation means the inspector found a condition that keeps the unit off the road until it's corrected. The federal inspection and out-of-service rules sit in Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which you can read on eCFR.
This dataset is aggregated. It doesn't break vehicle violations down by component, so I can't tell you whether Kentucky's 34.0% is driven by brakes, tires, lighting, or something else. That's the next thing to pull before drawing any conclusion about maintenance practices in the state.
Several things can shift a state's profile without any change in carrier behavior:
- Inspection mix. A state with heavy inspection activity at weigh stations or on particular corridors will see a different set of violations than one that inspects mostly at terminals.
- Fleet mix. Local fleets, long-haul carriers, and out-of-state operators don't carry the same equipment profile.
- Enforcement focus. Targeted campaigns, such as a push on a specific equipment category, change what gets written up.
None of these makes the Kentucky number meaningless. They do mean you should ask why before you assume a cause.
Reading the coverage window
This is a 39-month snapshot. Rates shift as enforcement priorities change, and a three-year window can blend periods that look different from each other. If you compare Kentucky against a report built on another time range, check the window first. The most recent month in this dataset is October 2026, so treat the newest figures as the least settled.
Key takeaways
- Kentucky's out-of-service share of violations is 24.6%, against a national 17.6%.
- The gap sits on the vehicle side: 34.0% in Kentucky versus 24.0% nationally.
- The driver side runs lower in Kentucky: 11.2% versus 24.1% nationally.
- Kentucky writes about 1.24 violations per inspection, compared with about 1.60 nationally.
- Confirm the denominator before comparing any out-of-service figure.
If you want to see how Kentucky compares with its neighbors on the same measures, start with the state map. Pull the same breakdown for each state and the vehicle-versus-driver split will tell you more than the headline rate does.