In support of National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, police agencies throughout Michigan’s Thumb are teaming up with the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP) for a high-visibility enforcement effort during April.
Throughout the month, police officers across the state will remind drivers about the dangers of distracted driving while enforcing Michigan’s Hands-Free Driving Law, which took effect last year on June 30. The goal of this initiative is to reduce traffic crashes caused by distracted drivers, ultimately preventing injuries and deaths associated with mobile device use and texting while driving.
Michigan Traffic Crash Facts data from 2022 shows that there were over 15,000 traffic crashes involving a distracted driver that year, with those crashes resulting in a total of 5,905 injuries and 57 deaths. Research also shows that the most common crash type for distracted-driving crashes is rear-end crashes, which accounted for almost half of all distracted-driving crashes in 2022.
Violating Michigan’s Hands-Free Driving Law can be costly. For the first offense, a $100 ticket and/or 16 hours of community service; for the second offense, a $250 ticket and/or 24 hours of community service; and for a third offense, within a three-year-period, the driver is to complete a driving-improvement course. For more information, visit www.michigan.gov/DistractedDriving.
