In this episode, host Phil Tower speaks with Alicia Sledge, the director of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning.
Alicia, you're joining us to talk about the state's ever to crack down on speeding during the busy summer driving season.
The good news: In Michigan, speeding-related crashes and fatalities have been decreasing. There was a 20% drop in speed-involved crashes in 2023 compared to 2022, and a 32% decrease since 2019.
The still bad: Speed was a factor in 210 fatalities and 6,848 injuries in Michigan in 2023.
Exceeding the speed limit is more than just breaking traffic laws—it represents dangerous behavior that threatens the safety of everyone on the road.
Online: Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning.
Alicia, you're joining us to talk about the state's ever to crack down on speeding during the busy summer driving season.
The good news: In Michigan, speeding-related crashes and fatalities have been decreasing. There was a 20% drop in speed-involved crashes in 2023 compared to 2022, and a 32% decrease since 2019.
The still bad: Speed was a factor in 210 fatalities and 6,848 injuries in Michigan in 2023.
Exceeding the speed limit is more than just breaking traffic laws—it represents dangerous behavior that threatens the safety of everyone on the road.
Online: Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend is
a weekly programmed designed to inform and enlighten on a
wide range of public policy issues, as well as news
and current events. Now here's your host, Phil Tower.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We are talking about the highways in this segment, Michigan's Highways.
We're going to catch up in this segment with Alicia Sledge.
She is structor of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning. Summertime,
we in a lot of traffic on Michigan's roads and
exceeding the speed limit is more than just getting an
expensive ticket. It actually makes things worse for all the
(00:40):
drivers around you, including yourself. It threatens the safety of
the drivers within your vicinity, and it can have deadly results.
Good news is that speed involved crashes are actually down,
but we need to do our best to keep that
number down. And that's why we're catching up with a
(01:00):
Sledge from the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning because
it is one of those months in the month of
July with traffic speed enforcement, so you're going to be
seeing more police officers out there. Alisa, thank you for
taking the time to join us on Iheartradios West Michigan Weekend.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Well, thank you very much for having me Phil, I
really appreciate the invitation.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Well, absolutely, this is not a new thing. This has
been happening for a long time because it's important to
enforce posted speeds and if anybody drives on for instance,
I ninety six or some of the major freeways one
thirty one, the posted speeds between seventy or seventy five
are often exceeded. That's kind of what people say, Oh,
(01:45):
it's the flow of the traffic, but it's not unusual
Elisia unfortunately, sadly to see people driving ninety five or
one hundred sometimes weaving in and out of traffic. It
is a concerning thing because you never know when somebody
up ahead is going to put on the brakes and
cause an accident. Because of that, you know that speeding
(02:06):
person not being able to stop in time. So let's
talk about this. The current news of the drop in
speed involved crashes. Do we relate that to enforcement, Do
we relate that to people actually listening to their Michigan
Office of Highway Safety Planning help us understand that drop
over the last six years.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yes, we're happy to see that there has been a
decrease in the number of feed involved crashes in Michigan
over the last five years. We've actually seen a thirty
two percent increase from twenty nineteen through twenty twenty three,
and so that is very promising and positive information to have.
(02:48):
And even over the last year we've seen a decrease
of approximately five percent from twenty twenty three that compared
to twenty twenty and so with that, you know, overall
just exceeding the speed limit. So it's more than you know,
we have the officers that are out there throughout the state.
(03:11):
We'll have about one hundred and twenty eight law enforcement
agencies that OHSP will be providing overtime funding so that
they're out there enforcing the traffic laws and enforcing the
speeding laws through the month of July. And so we're
hoping that with those enforcement efforts as well as media
efforts that we're working on, whether it's TV, radio, you
(03:34):
may see billboards, gas station TV, those types of things,
definitely social media. So we're trying in many efforts and
many strategies to get the message out and just for
people to see officers out there in hopes of them
slowing down and not speeding and just making it safer
for both themselves as well as those that are on
(03:55):
the road.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
The Alicia, the laws of physics will really unmask what
a lot of people think is reality, which it really isn't,
Which is, you know, if I got ten to fifteen
miles an hour over the speed limit, maybe twenty, I'm
going to get there so much quicker. But really, in
the end, it is the difference worth worth it? Really not.
Oftentimes you'll end up, you know, maybe arriving at an
(04:21):
exit sooner, but then the exit is backed up, or
traffic is very slow on the surface streets, and it
just really is not worth it. The posted speeds, whether
it's seventy or seventy five, will get you there. It's
not unusual to see people driving slightly above those, or
maybe five to ten miles an hour above. But we're
talking people who are seriously exceeding that speed limit. They
(04:44):
are a traffic risk for a lot of reasons. And
as we are having this conversation, over the fourth of
July holiday weekend, we had the tragic news of a
double fatality crash on I ninety six by Ion, where
if you read the Michigan State Police accounts. This was
(05:06):
near a traffic zone, so traffic is slowing down to
begin with, and it was a situation where a semi
truck had stopped, another pickup truck had stopped behind that,
and somebody speeding slammed into both the pickup truck, and
of course that smash into the semi killed two people.
A speed involved crash. I mean, this sadly happens far
(05:28):
too often. And as we talk about those statistics, even
though there was a thirty two percent decrease, as you said,
over roughly four years, it's still there are over twenty
one thousand speed involved crashes in Michigan. That was the
twenty twenty three statistic. That's a lot of crashes for
our state of Michigan. Yes, we have a lot of
(05:50):
cars in the road. But it's still a pretty striking number.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Isn't it. Yes, it's definitely a very large number. And
you know, we never accept those numbers both where it's
promising to see that those numbers are decreasing. Twenty one thousand,
you know, over twenty one thousand crashes, it's still not acceptable.
And with that, you know, and the crash that you
(06:15):
just mentioned, and things like that. You do have those
crashes where there's an existing incident or as you said,
traffic slowing and for a speed crash to come. You know,
a lot of times you think that person may have
been distracted. You know, it could have been that type
of speeding and some of the things to keep in mind,
(06:36):
because you will see on the highways those cars that
are weaving in and our traffic, so they're just speeding.
And what we see a lot of times are over
seventy two percent of speeding involved crashes are single motor vehicles.
So it may be one vehicle, it may not be
involved in a in crashes with multiple vehicles, but it
(06:56):
would be a single motor vehicle. That is the most
common and crash types that's associated with speed involved crashes
and then crashes that you mentioned where the vehicle ran
into the back of the pickup, that was the back
of the semi things like that, The first thing you
typically think is someone must have been distracted, you know.
(07:17):
So those are the kinds of things when we ask
or give tips. It's like staying to stay alert behind
the wheel and don't drive distracted, pay attention to the
drive to make sure your hands are on the wheel
and not texting or excessive use of the GPS or
you know, the radio. Just limit your distractions and make
(07:39):
sure you're paying attention on the road. Definitely slowing down,
you know, when you're in high traffic areas, when you're
going through intersections on the road on highways, and then
also making sure you're driving for road conditions. Many times
people think speeding is just exceeding the speed plmit. However,
their instance is where the road conditions are not at
(08:02):
their prime conditions, so you could have fog, you could
have brain and wet roads. The speed limits are set
based on perfect road conditions, and so if those road
conditions are not perfect, then you would want to adjust
your speed limit and lord a little bit. So although
that's the speed limit, if there's a crash, you may
have been driving faster than the road conditions could allow.
(08:26):
And so in those types of instances that is also
speed involved, which is why we get to that, you know,
the twenty one thousand number of crashes. One of the
good things, however, is though the number of crashes are decreasing,
but we've also seen a decrease in the number of
fatalities in which that were part of speed involved crashes,
(08:48):
and in twenty twenty three there were two hundred and
ten speed involved fatalities, and again, two hundred and ten
is not acceptable. We're always looking to go towards zero
fatalities over that two hundred and ten and twenty twenty
three that was a five point eight percent decrease from
the two hundred and twenty three fatalities that we have
(09:08):
the year before. So we're always glad to see those
reductions and that lives are being saved. However, we're still
not resting on our laurels. We're continuing with the enforcement
that we're doing. We're continuing with the paid media, We're
continuing trying to educate drivers of the importance of reducing
(09:29):
your speed, driving for the road conditions, minimizing your distractions.
And so that's why this July we're going to have
one hundred and twenty eight law enforcement agencies across the
state we'll be out doing speed enforcement, and that's about
a half dozen more than we had last year. So
we're happy to add six additional law enforcement agencies to
(09:52):
this effort and they will be out there just enforcing
those laws. And trying to make sure that they are visible.
Hopefully they're being visible to the drivers will result in
drivers reducing their speeds and going the speed limits. But
we're not resting on, you know, being happy that we're
going to decrease. We still have a lot of work
to do.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yes, you do.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
So we're hoping that in twenty twenty five that we
will continue to see reductions that we've seen over the
last two to five years.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah, well, said Alicia's Sledge is with us director of
Michigan's Office of Highway Safety Planning. Just go to Michigan
dot gov and you will find it in there within
the state departments, or you can just google Michigan Office
of Highway Safety Planning. A lot of good resources there.
You before we run out of time, I've got a
couple of minutes left, Alicia, you wanted to educate our listeners,
(10:44):
just very briefly on the cost of speeding, whether you're
ten miles an hour or twenty miles an hour, give
us an overview for a minute, if you would please,
on how expensive speeding can be. It also adds points
to your driver's license, your driver's record, which will increase
your insurance so talk about that real quickly if you please.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Okay, Well, some of the fines in Michigan, So speeding
violations are generally general civil infractions, so that means they're
not criminal offenses. However, exceeding the speed limit, especially by
a large margin or in certain areas like school or
construction zones, those can lead to increased penalties and even
criminal charges. So some of the fines for speeding in Michigans,
(11:27):
they vary based on how much over the speed limit
you're driving and where the violation occurs. For example, speeding
one to five miles per hour over the limit might
cost ninety dollars, while eleven to fifteen miles per hour
over the limit could be one hundred and twenty dollars.
So speeding in school zones again, construction zones or emergency
(11:48):
scenes can also double your fine.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
And as far as points on your license, speeding violations
also add points to your driving records, so the number
of points increases also with the severe the speeding violation.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
It's good to know that. And I don't know about you,
but ninety bucks just for a little bit over this
speed limit, that's enough for me. That's going to be
a determined for speeding right there. If you want to
learn more about this effort a lot more law enforcement
on the road during the month of July, you can
go to the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning. That's
(12:24):
Michigan's OHSP. Alicia Sledge, director of the Michigan Office of
Highway Safety Planning. I'm really glad we could get this
important information out before a drivers. It's always a good
reminder that speeding never pays off in the long run.
Thank you, Alicia, Thank you sir.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
You've been listening to iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan
Weekend is a production of Wood Radio and iHeartRadio.
This is iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend is
a weekly programmed designed to inform and enlighten on a
wide range of public policy issues, as well as news
and current events. Now here's your host, Phil Tower.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We are talking about the highways in this segment, Michigan's Highways.
We're going to catch up in this segment with Alicia Sledge.
She is structor of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning. Summertime,
we in a lot of traffic on Michigan's roads and
exceeding the speed limit is more than just getting an
expensive ticket. It actually makes things worse for all the
(00:40):
drivers around you, including yourself. It threatens the safety of
the drivers within your vicinity, and it can have deadly results.
Good news is that speed involved crashes are actually down,
but we need to do our best to keep that
number down. And that's why we're catching up with a
(01:00):
Sledge from the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning because
it is one of those months in the month of
July with traffic speed enforcement, so you're going to be
seeing more police officers out there. Alisa, thank you for
taking the time to join us on Iheartradios West Michigan Weekend.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Well, thank you very much for having me Phil, I
really appreciate the invitation.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Well, absolutely, this is not a new thing. This has
been happening for a long time because it's important to
enforce posted speeds and if anybody drives on for instance,
I ninety six or some of the major freeways one
thirty one, the posted speeds between seventy or seventy five
are often exceeded. That's kind of what people say, Oh,
(01:45):
it's the flow of the traffic, but it's not unusual
Elisia unfortunately, sadly to see people driving ninety five or
one hundred sometimes weaving in and out of traffic. It
is a concerning thing because you never know when somebody
up ahead is going to put on the brakes and
cause an accident. Because of that, you know that speeding
(02:06):
person not being able to stop in time. So let's
talk about this. The current news of the drop in
speed involved crashes. Do we relate that to enforcement, Do
we relate that to people actually listening to their Michigan
Office of Highway Safety Planning help us understand that drop
over the last six years.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yes, we're happy to see that there has been a
decrease in the number of feed involved crashes in Michigan
over the last five years. We've actually seen a thirty
two percent increase from twenty nineteen through twenty twenty three,
and so that is very promising and positive information to have.
(02:48):
And even over the last year we've seen a decrease
of approximately five percent from twenty twenty three that compared
to twenty twenty and so with that, you know, overall
just exceeding the speed limit. So it's more than you know,
we have the officers that are out there throughout the state.
(03:11):
We'll have about one hundred and twenty eight law enforcement
agencies that OHSP will be providing overtime funding so that
they're out there enforcing the traffic laws and enforcing the
speeding laws through the month of July. And so we're
hoping that with those enforcement efforts as well as media
efforts that we're working on, whether it's TV, radio, you
(03:34):
may see billboards, gas station TV, those types of things,
definitely social media. So we're trying in many efforts and
many strategies to get the message out and just for
people to see officers out there in hopes of them
slowing down and not speeding and just making it safer
for both themselves as well as those that are on
(03:55):
the road.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
The Alicia, the laws of physics will really unmask what
a lot of people think is reality, which it really isn't,
Which is, you know, if I got ten to fifteen
miles an hour over the speed limit, maybe twenty, I'm
going to get there so much quicker. But really, in
the end, it is the difference worth worth it? Really not.
Oftentimes you'll end up, you know, maybe arriving at an
(04:21):
exit sooner, but then the exit is backed up, or
traffic is very slow on the surface streets, and it
just really is not worth it. The posted speeds, whether
it's seventy or seventy five, will get you there. It's
not unusual to see people driving slightly above those, or
maybe five to ten miles an hour above. But we're
talking people who are seriously exceeding that speed limit. They
(04:44):
are a traffic risk for a lot of reasons. And
as we are having this conversation, over the fourth of
July holiday weekend, we had the tragic news of a
double fatality crash on I ninety six by Ion, where
if you read the Michigan State Police accounts. This was
(05:06):
near a traffic zone, so traffic is slowing down to
begin with, and it was a situation where a semi
truck had stopped, another pickup truck had stopped behind that,
and somebody speeding slammed into both the pickup truck, and
of course that smash into the semi killed two people.
A speed involved crash. I mean, this sadly happens far
(05:28):
too often. And as we talk about those statistics, even
though there was a thirty two percent decrease, as you said,
over roughly four years, it's still there are over twenty
one thousand speed involved crashes in Michigan. That was the
twenty twenty three statistic. That's a lot of crashes for
our state of Michigan. Yes, we have a lot of
(05:50):
cars in the road. But it's still a pretty striking number.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Isn't it. Yes, it's definitely a very large number. And
you know, we never accept those numbers both where it's
promising to see that those numbers are decreasing. Twenty one thousand,
you know, over twenty one thousand crashes, it's still not acceptable.
And with that, you know, and the crash that you
(06:15):
just mentioned, and things like that. You do have those
crashes where there's an existing incident or as you said,
traffic slowing and for a speed crash to come. You know,
a lot of times you think that person may have
been distracted. You know, it could have been that type
of speeding and some of the things to keep in mind,
(06:36):
because you will see on the highways those cars that
are weaving in and our traffic, so they're just speeding.
And what we see a lot of times are over
seventy two percent of speeding involved crashes are single motor vehicles.
So it may be one vehicle, it may not be
involved in a in crashes with multiple vehicles, but it
(06:56):
would be a single motor vehicle. That is the most
common and crash types that's associated with speed involved crashes
and then crashes that you mentioned where the vehicle ran
into the back of the pickup, that was the back
of the semi things like that, The first thing you
typically think is someone must have been distracted, you know.
(07:17):
So those are the kinds of things when we ask
or give tips. It's like staying to stay alert behind
the wheel and don't drive distracted, pay attention to the
drive to make sure your hands are on the wheel
and not texting or excessive use of the GPS or
you know, the radio. Just limit your distractions and make
(07:39):
sure you're paying attention on the road. Definitely slowing down,
you know, when you're in high traffic areas, when you're
going through intersections on the road on highways, and then
also making sure you're driving for road conditions. Many times
people think speeding is just exceeding the speed plmit. However,
their instance is where the road conditions are not at
(08:02):
their prime conditions, so you could have fog, you could
have brain and wet roads. The speed limits are set
based on perfect road conditions, and so if those road
conditions are not perfect, then you would want to adjust
your speed limit and lord a little bit. So although
that's the speed limit, if there's a crash, you may
have been driving faster than the road conditions could allow.
(08:26):
And so in those types of instances that is also
speed involved, which is why we get to that, you know,
the twenty one thousand number of crashes. One of the
good things, however, is though the number of crashes are decreasing,
but we've also seen a decrease in the number of
fatalities in which that were part of speed involved crashes,
(08:48):
and in twenty twenty three there were two hundred and
ten speed involved fatalities, and again, two hundred and ten
is not acceptable. We're always looking to go towards zero
fatalities over that two hundred and ten and twenty twenty
three that was a five point eight percent decrease from
the two hundred and twenty three fatalities that we have
(09:08):
the year before. So we're always glad to see those
reductions and that lives are being saved. However, we're still
not resting on our laurels. We're continuing with the enforcement
that we're doing. We're continuing with the paid media, We're
continuing trying to educate drivers of the importance of reducing
(09:29):
your speed, driving for the road conditions, minimizing your distractions.
And so that's why this July we're going to have
one hundred and twenty eight law enforcement agencies across the
state we'll be out doing speed enforcement, and that's about
a half dozen more than we had last year. So
we're happy to add six additional law enforcement agencies to
(09:52):
this effort and they will be out there just enforcing
those laws. And trying to make sure that they are visible.
Hopefully they're being visible to the drivers will result in
drivers reducing their speeds and going the speed limits. But
we're not resting on, you know, being happy that we're
going to decrease. We still have a lot of work
to do.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yes, you do.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
So we're hoping that in twenty twenty five that we
will continue to see reductions that we've seen over the
last two to five years.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah, well, said Alicia's Sledge is with us director of
Michigan's Office of Highway Safety Planning. Just go to Michigan
dot gov and you will find it in there within
the state departments, or you can just google Michigan Office
of Highway Safety Planning. A lot of good resources there.
You before we run out of time, I've got a
couple of minutes left, Alicia, you wanted to educate our listeners,
(10:44):
just very briefly on the cost of speeding, whether you're
ten miles an hour or twenty miles an hour, give
us an overview for a minute, if you would please,
on how expensive speeding can be. It also adds points
to your driver's license, your driver's record, which will increase
your insurance so talk about that real quickly if you please.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Okay, Well, some of the fines in Michigan, So speeding
violations are generally general civil infractions, so that means they're
not criminal offenses. However, exceeding the speed limit, especially by
a large margin or in certain areas like school or
construction zones, those can lead to increased penalties and even
criminal charges. So some of the fines for speeding in Michigans,
(11:27):
they vary based on how much over the speed limit
you're driving and where the violation occurs. For example, speeding
one to five miles per hour over the limit might
cost ninety dollars, while eleven to fifteen miles per hour
over the limit could be one hundred and twenty dollars.
So speeding in school zones again, construction zones or emergency
(11:48):
scenes can also double your fine.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
And as far as points on your license, speeding violations
also add points to your driving records, so the number
of points increases also with the severe the speeding violation.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
It's good to know that. And I don't know about you,
but ninety bucks just for a little bit over this
speed limit, that's enough for me. That's going to be
a determined for speeding right there. If you want to
learn more about this effort a lot more law enforcement
on the road during the month of July, you can
go to the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning. That's
(12:24):
Michigan's OHSP. Alicia Sledge, director of the Michigan Office of
Highway Safety Planning. I'm really glad we could get this
important information out before a drivers. It's always a good
reminder that speeding never pays off in the long run.
Thank you, Alicia, Thank you sir.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
You've been listening to iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan
Weekend is a production of Wood Radio and iHeartRadio.
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