If you count yourself among those who just can’t keep your hands off your phone, even when your hands are supposed to be on the wheel, consider this your fair warning. First of all you are already putting yourself in grave danger every time you elect to ignore the law and text while driving, but starting next week you will stand a dramatically enhanced chance of being pulled over, cited and fined for your actions.
Again…fair warning…the Berrien County Sheriff’s Office, the Bridgman City Police Department, the New Buffalo City Police Department, the Saint Joseph Department of Public Safety, and the Benton Harbor Department of Public Safety are all ready to Crack Down on Texting-Law Violators during the Third National Texting Enforcement Crackdown coming next week.
The increased high-visibility enforcement by these agencies will be conducted at various times and dates beginning on Monday, April 9th, 2018 and continuing thru April 21st, 2018. However enforcement action will be taken by all law enforcement officers who observe violations, even the officers not assigned to the High-Visibility Distracted Driving Enforcement
During April, law enforcement officers will be stepping up patrols for motorists who text while driving. The National U Drive, U Text, U Pay high-visibility enforcement campaign has two goals: conduct enforcement on anti-texting laws and advertise these efforts with media and social media outreach to make drivers aware of the enforcement and encourage them to obey the law.
Driving and texting is not only dangerous and irresponsible – It’s Illegal.
Drivers who break the state’s texting law will be stopped and cited.
Texting while driving is especially dangerous because it involves three main types of distraction:
#1: Visual – taking your eyes off the road.
#2: Manual – taking your hands off the steering wheel.
#3: Cognitive – taking your mind off the task of driving.
Michigan’s texting law prohibits drivers from reading, manually typing, or sending a text message while driving. Violating the texting law may be costly. Drivers convicted of a first offense may be fined $100 with subsequent offenses of $200 each.
Distracted driving statistics paint a grim picture: In 2016, an estimated 3,450 people were killed nationwide in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Distracted driving crashes made up 9.2-percent of all fatal crashes in 2016.
In Michigan, distracted driving accounted for 12,788 crashes in 2016. Those crashes resulted in 43 fatalities and 5,103 injuries, according to the Michigan State Police Criminal Justice Information Center.
According to a 2014 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, the risk of a crash or a near-crash among novice drivers increased with the performance of many secondary tasks, including texting and dialing cell phones.
So…make a plan now to put the phone away as soon as you get into the car, truck or SUV. You have been warned.
