Michigan Auto Law observes Distracted Driving Awareness Month

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — April is Distracted Driving Awareness Thirty day period and the group at Michigan Auto Regulation is observing the difference in a specific way. 

The attorneys award a scholarship every calendar year throughout this month. It’s the Kelsey’s Legislation Distracted Driving Awareness Scholarship, offered in partnership with Bonnie Raffaele, who fought for passage of Kelsey’s Legislation immediately after her daughter dropped her existence in a distracted driving crash.  

The purpose is to craft a information in a YouTube video clip, graphic or tweet that persuades other people, specifically teenager motorists, to end texting when driving and to prevent distracted driving.  

The 2022 winners include things like:

• Overall Greatest Submission: $2,000 Anh Dang – Byron Heart Higher College, Byron Heart
• Most effective Movie Submission: $1,500 Ethan Singer – North Farmington Large Faculty, Farmington Hills
• Finest Graphic Submission: $1,000 Rylie Steuer – Wayland Union Large College, Wayland
• Finest Tweet Submission: $500 Connor Wolfe – Byron Middle High School, Byron Heart
• Deadline for the 2023 scholarship is March 31, 2023

According to Michigan Car Legislation lawyer Brandon Hewitt, Michigan regulation prohibits all drivers from texting although driving utilizing a hand-held cell phone or a cellular phone in their lap. (MCL 257.602b(1))  

Most drivers are NOT prohibited from working with a cell telephone (holding, dialing, initiating a call, answering, speaking and listening, and/or reaching for) whilst driving. Teenager motorists ARE prohibited from making use of a cell mobile phone when driving underneath Kelsey’s Regulation – besides there is a loophole if the teen driver is “using a voice-operated process that is integrated into the motor car.” (MCL 257.602c(1) and (3))  

Truck drivers and university bus motorists ARE prohibited from making use of a “hand-held” mobile cellular phone although driving. (MCL 257.602b(3))  

There is practically nothing beneath current Michigan regulation that prohibits texting or mobile cell phone use though driving if done making use of a hands-no cost feature, whilst Hewitt states, “hands-free does not essentially necessarily mean Hazard-free.”  

Penalties for texting even though driving incorporate a civil infraction, a $100 great for initial offense and $200 for 2nd. There are no factors on a person’s driver’s license (so lengthy they are not truck motorists or university bus drivers). (MCL 257.602b(6) 257.320a(2))

 Hewitt shared some statistics around distracted driving:

• Distracted driving-relevant car crashes (i.e., where by a driver was applying a cell mobile phone) in Michigan increased close to 27% all round concerning 2016 and 2020.
• Fatal distracted driving-related auto accidents (i.e., where a driver was utilizing a cell phone) in Michigan increased close to 88% concerning 2016 and 2020.
• The full range of distracted driving-associated motor motor vehicle crashes in the U.S. improved somewhere around 11% amongst 2015 and 2019, from 885,000 to 986,000.
• Distracted driving was a factor in 9% of all fatal crashes in the U.S. in 2019.
• 6% of all drivers associated in fatal crashes in the U.S. in 2019 were distracted at the time of the crashes.

• Extra than 17% of the drivers concerned in distracted driving-related crashes in Michigan in 2020 were being “20 yrs of age or youthful.”
• 9% of the teen motorists (aged 15 to 19) who were being associated in lethal crashes in the U.S. in 2019 have been distracted. No other age team experienced a more substantial proportion of motorists who were being distracted at the time of the fatal crashes they were included in.

 Watch this video to see the successful college student entry, study the figures on distracted driving, and why Hewitt claims distracted driving is as perilous as drunk driving. You can go through a lot more about distracted driving on the site at www.MichiganAutoLaw.com.

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