Crashes down in first year of hands-free driving law

WYOMING, Mich. (WOOD) — One year after Michigan’s hands-free driving law went into effect , crashes in Michigan are down.

A report from the Governors Highway Safety Association showed in the first 7.5 months of the law taking effect , Michigan saw an average reduction of 9.5% in distracted driving, which is estimated to have prevented 2,485 crashes, 11 fatalities, 1,400 injuries and $98 million in economic damage.

Those numbers are being seen on a local level as well.

“We’ve seen about a 6% decrease in our total traffic crashes, looking at January to May of last year versus January to May of this year,” said Captain Eric Wiler with the City of Wyoming. “We’ve also seen a reduction in some of our fatal crashes as well.”

A lot of factors contribute to driving statistics, which Wiler said makes it difficult to pinpoint whether the law is behind the decrease. Any improvement, though, is a success in law enforcement’s eyes.

“I think that’s great if that’s showing that what we’re doing is working,” Wiler said. “One thing that they mentioned in that report is just keeping the word out there so I think it’s great that we’re having this conversation now, a year later.”

Wyoming Police issued 70 citations for hands-free driving violations in the first year, and though there’s been an improvement in safety, there are still plenty of distracted drivers on the roads.

News 8 rode along with a Wyoming Police officer Monday and in less than an hour, the patrol officer gave out two citations for this violation in particular. The two drivers were spotted on their phones at a red light and when pulled over, both claimed to have been changing the song on their playlist. One of the drivers had a young child in the back seat.

“A lot of times you’ll see either the hand up if they’re on the phone the other thing I look for is if they kind of swerve one way or another in the lane,” explained Officer Klaassen. “Another big indicator is if they sit at a light for awhile, typically you can tell or if their head is down.”

Though phones have become a part of everyday life for most people, Wiler said it’s vital to be intentional when getting behind the wheel.

“A lot of times we get into our cars and we think that’s our little personal space, our own little bubble,” Wiler explained. “We’re not realizing there’s hundreds, thousands of other people driving around us and that’s somebody else’s loved one a family member… aunt, uncle, brother or sister, and taking our eyes off of our phone even for a few seconds can cause a crash that could change somebody else’s life forever.”

Wiler said the city made it a goal in the last few years to improve traffic safety in general. The hands-free law helped with those efforts. Additionally, a traffic safety grant from General Motors allowed the city to purchase a distracted driving simulator.

“It’s a little portable simulator. We can take it to community events, we headed down to the Grand Rapids Auto Show, but really what we want to hit with it are the young drivers, so young drivers are really the ones that are on their mobile devices a lot. They’re a lot of the higher statistics for the crashes and stuff like that,” Wiler said.

The simulator has three screens, a driving wheel, gas pedal and brake. Participants have a cell phone and are asked to text an instructor while ‘driving’ to see what could happen if they use their phone behind the wheel.

“We’ve taken it into our schools, we’ve probably reached several hundred kids,” Wiler said.

It’s efforts like this, in addition to laws, that police hope can help make the roads safer for everyone.

“There’s so much going on in our lives right now, we’re so busy that having that one added thing of just keeping the phone down and away while we’re driving. It’s just going to help protect us and everybody else around us,” Wiler urged. “No text is worth your life or somebody else’s.”

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