News Photo by Temi Fadayomi Michigan State Police-Alpena Post Trooper J.J. LaCross is pictured on Monday. Michigan’s new distracted driving law went into effect on June 30 and local law enforcement officers hope the law will lead to a decrease in crashes and injuries related to distracted driving.

ALPENA — Local law enforcement officers believe that Michigan’s new distracted driving law will help decrease crashes and injuries in the Alpena area and plan to enforce the law the same as they would with any other violation.

“I think it’s great,” Alpena County Sheriff Erik Smith said about the new law. “We deal with a lot of distracted drivers these days.”

On June 30, three bills — signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer with the purpose of reducing crashes caused by distracted driving — went into effect.

Distracted driving crashes in which the driver was using a cellphone increased 88% between 2016 and 2020, according to statistics from the governor’s office.

According to Michigan State Police-Alpena Post Trooper Jason Kunath, laws similar to Michigan’s new law have been passed in other states and have decreased the rate of car crashes due to distracted driving.

“Laws like these have led to decreases in accidents in other states,” Kunath said. “We are hoping to follow that trend.”

In a summary of the bills’ effect provided by the Michigan State Police, the following actions are now illegal to do manually while driving:

*Making or answering a telephone or video call

*sending or reading a text or email message

*watching, recording, or sending a video

*accessing, reading, or posting to social media

*browsing or using the internet

*entering information into GPS or a navigation system.

Under the law, these actions are considered primary offenses, which means that doing any of them can result in being stopped and ticketed.

The penalties under the law increase in severity through repeat offenses. The first violation carries a $100 fine and/or 16 hours of community service. The second or subsequent violation carries a $250 fine and/or 24 hours of community service. In the event that there are three violations within a three-year period, the driver must undergo a complete driving-improvement course.

Additionally, if the at-fault driver in a traffic accident was holding or manually using a mobile device, whatever civil fines they face will be doubled.

According to Michigan State Police traffic crash data for 2022, distracted driving-involved crashes decreased overall. However, of the driver distractions reported in traffic crashes, communication devices, hands-free and handheld devices and electronic devices accounted for more than 4,000 of the reports.

In Northeast Michigan, Alpena County had 39 reported distracted driving crashes in 2022, Montmorency County had six, Alcona County had nine and Presque Isle County had nine. The data does not specify which factors were involved in those crashes.

“I leave it to the discretion of each of my deputies,” Smith said, with regard to how his office will enforce the new law.

While local law enforcement officials will crack down on cell phone usage while driving in accordance with the law, there are no current plans to turn it into a large-scale campaign or directive.

“There is no plan for a click-it-or-ticket type campaign,” Kunath said. “We will treat it like any other violation.”