With April being Distracted Driving Awareness Month, the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office is teaming up with the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning for enforcement throughout the month.
The high-visibility enforcement effort is called “U Drive. U Text. U Pay,” with the goal of this initiative being to reduce traffic crashes caused by distracted drivers, ultimately preventing injuries and deaths associated with cell phone use and texting while driving.
According to Michigan Traffic Crash Facts, there were almost 17,000 motor vehicle crashes involving a distracted driver in Michigan during 2021, and 59 of those crashes resulted in a fatality.
Research shows that Millennials and Generation Z are the most distracted drivers, often using their cell phones to talk, text, and scroll through social media while behind the wheel. Only 6.7 percent of Michigan drivers are under the age of 21, but that same group accounted for 18.1 percent of the distracted-driving crashes in 2021.
Violating Michigan’s Texting While Driving Law can be costly—$100 ticket for the first offense, and $200 ticket for each subsequent offense.
