MSP amping up speed enforcement
(CBS DETROIT) - Drivers, stay alert. Michigan State Police has amped up their speed enforcement in a campaign lasting through February.
"Slowing down is going to save lives," said Katie Bower, Director of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Panning.
The campaign comes following a spike in speed related fatalities. MSP says in 2021 there were 237 speed-related fatalities on Michigan roads. That's an increase of 18.5% over 2020 when 200 people died.
This speed enforcement period began at the beginning of December and lasts through February 28th of 2023. Bower says driver behaviors have changed over the pandemic. She says there's always several factors as to why crashes and traffic related fatalities go up or down, but habits picked up during the pandemic certainly didn't help.
"I don't know if it was because of the, you know, less traffic on the road and people felt that they could go a little faster and they haven't changed those behaviors. But we certainly have seen those behaviors change since the pandemic," Bower said.
MSP says the number of traffic crashes rose for from 245,432 in 2020 to 282, 640 in 2021. Fatalities also rose from 1,131 in 2021 compared to 1,083 in 2020.