Could 3 percent of truckers on Maine’s highways be operating with suspended licenses?

We don’t know how else to read the results of a commercial vehicle inspection effort last week in York County. During the three-day crackdown, 584 trucks were inspected and 795 violations found, according to the Maine State Police. Of those, 83 vehicles, or about 14 percent, had such serious mechanical problems that they were taken out of service until they could be repaired.

Nearly 18 percent of the drivers were ordered off the road because of logbook violations or licensing issues. Among those, 3 percent, or 19 drivers, were found driving illegally with a suspended license.

None of that is very comforting. Accidents are usually the result of some combination of factors, and it’s easy to see how those factors can line up: Perhaps there’s a truck with bad brakes, driven by an exhausted driver who has already lost his license for prior violations.

Throw in the unexpected, bad weather or, perhaps, traffic suddenly stopped in a construction zone, and people die.

Call us naive, but when the state takes away your license, you are supposed to stop driving.

But, as we have seen, some drivers don’t seem to believe that. Unfortunately, they include drunken drivers, reckless drivers and truckers who ignore the law.

The three-day inspection in York County was part of a larger effort called “Roadcheck 2006.” Police in Mexico, Canada and all 50 states were out performing safety checks on tractor-trailers.

We do, of course, understand the economics of the trucking business, and they don’t do much to encourage safe driving.

Drivers are paid by the mile traveled, so the more they drive, the more they are paid. They are also under pressure to deliver loads on time, but the uncertainties of highway travel sometimes make that impossible.

Deliver enough late loads and they get no loads at all.

When a driver’s license is suspended for traffic or logbook violation, that person’s income is gone, and that’s a powerful inducement to break the law and drive anyway.

That’s why we strongly encourage crackdowns like “Roadcheck 2006.” Drivers with substandard equipment, who cheat on their logs or drive illegally are less likely to drive if they know they may be caught.

And that’s in the interest of public safety.