Police have noticed an increase in dangerous driving since the pandemic started, and agencies across Michigan will be stepping up patrols for the next few months to get them to slow down. Berrien County Undersheriff Chuck Heit tells us the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning is providing support to law enforcement to have an extra presence on the road through the end of February.
“We have seen speeds have increased,” Heit said. “So, one, we’re bringing awareness to that fact. There’s been a rise in fatalities across the state of Michigan, based off research that was done by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.”
Heit says the enforcement will focus on non-highway roads because that’s where most speed-related traffic fatalities occur. In Michigan, the number of traffic crashes rose from 245,000 in 2020 to 282,000 in 2021, an increase of 15%. Of those, 24,000 were speed-related crashes, which is a 10% increase from 2020.
