(WWJ) Michigan State Police who patrol the freeways in Metro Detroit will take part in a statewide crackdown on speeding.
The MSP Second District said its troopers, along with officers from police agencies across Michigan, will conduct "overtime speed enforcement" between Dec. 1, 2022, and Feb, 28, 2023.
According to the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning, law enforcement agencies across Michigan have reported an alarming rise in speeding and fatal crashes since the COVID-19 pandemic began more than two years ago.
In 2021, there were 237 speed-related fatalities on Michigan roads, an increase of 18.5% over 2020, when 200 people died. The number of traffic crashes rose from 245,432 in 2020 to 282,640 in 2021, an increase of 15%.
According to speed-involved data from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, in 2021: 13.3% of unrestrained drivers involved in crashes were speeding, and 10.2% of drivers in the 15- to 20-year-old age group involved in crashes were speeding.
Officials noted that speeding doesn't just happen on freeways. Looking back at 2020, 87% of all speeding-related traffic fatalities occurred on non-interstate roadways, MSP said.
Although all those stats seem pretty grim, some numbers are finally trending down.
The latest data for 2022 shows 17 people died on Michigan roadways, as of last week, making a total of 998 this year, and 100 more were seriously injured for a statewide total of 5,183 to date. Compared to last year at this time there are 43 fewer fatalities and 93 fewer serious injuries.
Other than risking injury or death, there's another good reason to slow down.
Recent insurance industry studies show that approximately 112,000 speeding tickets are issued each day, or about 41 million per year, MIOHSP said.
In announcing this stepped up enforcement, MSP said in a tweet on Thursday: "You only have to be a daily follower of this account to see the number of crashes that are due to speed... So please slow down, wear your seatbelt, be kind and #DriveMichiganSafely."
Police did not say on which specific roads and freeways they would be focusing their efforts.
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