When conversation turns to distracted driving, Michigan law enforcement officials say they are concerned and frustrated.
Take Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, for instance. A former state lawmaker, Bouchard voiced his objections nearly a decade ago when a bill addressing distracted driving was winding its way through the process in Lansing.
Under the law, a motorist who is found to be texting while driving can be fined $100 for a first offense and $200 for repeat violations.
But the law’s language was too complicated and unenforceable, Bouchard said.
“It is not working — I doubt we have ever used it,” the sheriff said. “Nine years later, how many lives have been lost because a law was too specific to be enforced?”
That number is climbing, according to statistics from the Michigan State Police and a traffic safety agency.
The state police reported 20,115 crashes in Michigan involving distracted driving in 2017, including 72 fatalities — the highest numbers ever recorded. Last year, the state had 77 deaths and 7,213 injuries resulting from distracted-driving crashes, according to data from the Transportation Improvement Association.
“It's difficult to say what impact distracted driving legislation has had," said Robert Stevenson, a retired Livonia police chief who is executive director of the Michigan Association of Police Chiefs.
“Our association is behind efforts to get appropriate tools to officers to address distracted driving,” he said.
State lawmakers are trying to address the issue.
State Sen. Ruth Johnson, R-Holly, has introduced a bill that would expand the state’s texting-while-driving law to ban drivers from using all portable electronic devices except for those that are "hands free.”
Repeat violators could have one point assessed on their driver’s license for a second violation and two points for each subsequent violation, in addition to a ticket.
Another distracted-driving related bill, sponsored by state Rep. Mari Manoogian, D-Birmingham, would ban any driver under the age of 18 from using a cell phone while driving. It is part of a package of driving-related bills currently in committee.
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