In a city where traffic continues to clog, so does the number of big rigs that roll through Houston.

Thousands of them every day, so twice a month the Houston Police Department’s Truck Enforcement Division randomly stops a handful big rigs.

Unsafe trucks have long been a concern.

Bad brakes and poor tires can lead to accidents on our roads.

Now, HPD says it’s seeing something else: Numbers that aren’t adding up.

“He’s only allowed 80,000 total, and he’s 84,680,” HPD Truck Enforcement Officer Michael Trautwein said.

We’re talking thousands of pounds, meaning many of the trucks Officer Trautwein inspects are overloaded.

“The heavier it is the more dangerous it is,” Officer Trautwein said.

Dangerous, because overweight trucks tear up our roads, causing accidents.

Commercial trucks, especially ones carrying concrete, are slow to stop.

One truck that was stopped weighed in 1,260 pounds too heavy.

HPD statistics for last year that show two out of every three of the commercial trucks inspected were too heavy.

So who’s to blame?

“It’s not my fault,” trucker Salvador Mangua said. “That’s the way it came from the railroad.”

Truckers like Mangua are the ones who get what amounts to a traffic ticket.

“We just do the job you know,” he said.

Keep in mind these guys just do the driving — most of them don’t do the loading and say they have no idea about the truck’s weight.

“I don’t know what happened; it’s overweight or not I don’t know,” trucker Eladio Morales said.

But this trucker has some idea why commercial trucks are too heavy.

“Sometimes when they load up they have not enough room and too much material,” Ronald Flakes said.

With 12 full-time officers in the truck enforcement division, HPD said stopping every truck and big rig is impossible.

And going after the companies would require more resources, something the department simply doesn’t have.

“That’s all we have to work with at this point,” Officer Trautwein said.

But the officers know how important their work is and will keep trying to keep unsafe trucks off our roads.