GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — According to Michigan State Police (MSP), distracted driving is the fastest growing safety issue today. For this April’s Distracted Driving Awareness month, they’re cracking down on the dangerous trend by keeping a close eye on what people are doing while driving.
On Thursday morning, FOX 17 rode with MSP as they pulled vehicles over for distracted driving.
“We did have some distracted driving that we stopped and issued some citations,” said Sgt. Brett Sova during an interview after the ride-along. “We really want to get the word out for people to use their bluetooth device, hands-free device when they are driving, and not have that phone in their hand.”
According to @MichStatePolice distracted driving includes:
— Lauren Edwards (@LaurenEdwardsTV) April 27, 2023
🔘 Texting
🔘 Eating
🔘 Grooming
🔘 Looking at social media
🔘 Listening to loud music
🔘 Looking after pets/kids
🔘 Looking at crashes
In 2021, over 16,500 crashes involved a distracted driver. 59 were fatal // @FOX17 pic.twitter.com/MbyuGZ4YQr
Sgt. Sova, who’s been with MSP for 28 years, said distracted driving can be anything that takes a driver’s eyes off the road, including texting, smoking, watching videos, putting on makeup, and searching for items in the car.
He said MSP has been seeing an uptick in distracted-driving incidents.
“We see a lot of rear-end crashes,” Sgt. Sova said. “When people are not paying attention, not giving that distance between cars that they need, they’re looking down at their device, and all of a sudden a vehicle stopped in front of them.”
That’s when the crashes happen, he said.
According to MSP, in 2021 there were 1,263 rear-end crashes “where the driver was using the cellphone,” and 16,543 crashes that involved a distracted driver. Fifty-nine of them were fatal.
Nationally, over 32,400 people died in “distraction-affected crashes between 2011-2020,” stated the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
So, MSP is hoping that all drivers will heed the warnings and statistics to keep themselves and others safe, Sgt. Sova said.
“We really want to get the message out so we’re not having these personal injury crashes,” Sgt. Sova said. “A lot of them are just fender-bender type crashes. But some are very serious. We just want to get the word out that ‘people please use your bluetooth, use your hands-free device.’ And we can keep people safe out on the roads.”
