Data: Pedestrian crashes up in 2023, overall crashes down

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — New data released by the Michigan State Police Criminal Justice Information Center shows that across the state, there were slightly fewer crashes and deaths in 2023 than in 2022.

In 2023, there were 287,953 total crashes and 1,095 total fatalities in Michigan — both down 2% from 2022.

“ We have seen a reduction in fatalities, and we have seen a reduction in crashes,” Katie Bower, director of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning, said. “That’s wonderful news.”

DIGGING DEEPER

Breaking down the data by the type of crash paints a more complicated picture.

From 2022 to 2023, pedestrian-involved crashes increased by 11%, from 1,897 to 2,114, and pedestrian fatalities were up 6%, from 173 to 183.

“That is a little bit alarming,” Bower said.

Bicycle-involved crashes also increased by 10% from 2022 to 2023, but bicyclist fatalities were down 33%. Meanwhile, the data shows that motorcycle-involved crashes and motorcyclist fatalities both dropped (by 3% and 5%, respectively).

“We also see that alcohol-involved fatalities have gone down,” Bower added.

Drunken driving-related deaths dropped by 8% from 2022 to 2023, according to the data. Likewise, the overall number of alcohol-involved crashes decreased by 6%.

But Bower also noted that the number of drug-involved fatalities was up 3%, from 249 in 2022 to 256 in 2023, describing the statistic as “concerning.” It may be linked to people who use recreational marijuana outside of the home, she suggested.

“If you want to use cannabis in your home for recreation, the law allows that,” Bower explained. “But there are some individuals who take that outside of their home and still want to drive with cannabis on board.”

She said law enforcement also sees a lot of “poly use” — that is, the use of multiple substances at once.

Deaths in distracted driving-involved crashes — a wide-ranging descriptor that encompasses everything from using a cell phone to eating to checking something in a mirror — rose from 57 in 2022 to 59 in 2023. But Bower pointed out that the number of distracted driving crashes overall dropped by 2%, from 15,441 in 2022 to 15,136 in 2023.

Bower said that reflects well on the hands-free driving law, which took effect in June 2023. The law makes it illegal to hold a phone or another electronic device while driving, even if you’re stopped at a red light.

“The public is becoming aware that it’s against the law. Law enforcement at the beginning were doing a lot of education with the public,” she said. “But enforcement has now started to crack down.”

Though Bower is encouraged by the most recent data, she said that educating the public is an ongoing process.

“Unfortunately, we still see people — and I’m sure you have seen people on the road — still having a phone up to their ear or you see somebody at a traffic light or a stop sign still using an electronic device,” she said. “We still have a lot of education to do because all of us still see it happening.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

The 2023 statistics were released on Wednesday. Now, Bower says, it’s time to break apart the numbers and see what may be causing the crashes.

“Going forward, we are going to start looking at this data very, very closely and see what type of countermeasures that we can apply to driving these numbers down,” she explained. “We look at the data from lots of different angles. … What are the factors that are causing some of the crashes to go up? And what’s involved in the fatalities?”

It may be an issue of speeding, alcohol or drugs.

“Then law enforcement can target those things or we can start getting communities involved,” Bower said.

She said law enforcement visibility is a major deterrent to risky driving behavior and her office funds overtime enforcement for police agencies across the state.

In some cases, the data indicates that something in the road itself could be causing more crashes at a given location.

“That information is looked at by the Michigan Department of Transportation,” Bower said. “So the data is used for a lot of different reasons, but it’s very, very telling when you start breaking it apart.”

STILL RECOVERING FROM THE PANDEMIC

Bower hoped to see even fewer crashes and deaths in 2023.

“ I was really hoping to be more encouraged by the numbers,” she said. “I’m happy that the numbers are decreasing, but I really was hoping that we would see even lower crashes and fatalities.”

She told News 8 that the COVID-19 pandemic changed how people drive.

“When we were prepandemic, I believe it was 2018, we were in the 800s for fatalities and we were making great progress. And then going into the pandemic, we were up a little bit higher,” Bower explained. “And then driver behaviors really, really changed while we were on lockdown.”

Data from the MSP Criminal Justice Information Center shows that there were 974 traffic fatalities in 2018 and 985 in 2019. By 2020, this statistic rose to 1,083 and has been hovering around 1,100 ever since.

According to Bower, the pandemic and its restrictions changed how law enforcement interacted with the public.

“ That made it difficult to enforce a lot of things on the road, so we saw increased speeding. More people were drinking, unfortunately,” she said. “And so some of those behaviors, we need to start reversing again.”

‘START CHANGING OUR CULTURE’

Bower said traffic injuries and deaths can become “a public health issue.”

“We need to start changing our culture of traffic safety, the way that each of us think about driving a vehicle,” she said.

She encouraged teens to take defensive driving courses and guardians to demonstrate good driving behavior for their children.

“Children are very impressionable. So when they’re watching you drive at 9, 10, 11 years old … and you’re in the front seat looking at your cellphone, speeding, not wearing your seat belt, those kids are in the back seat modeling what you’re doing,” Bower said.

According to Bower, it’s the responsibility of every driver to be cautious.

“You could seriously hurt somebody else or kill somebody, and you can’t take that back,” she said. “So we really need to make sure that when we’re getting behind the wheel of a car, we’re just driving. And that’s our whole mission during that trip is to just drive, and drive safely.”

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