Michigan Lawmakers Want To Implement Harsher Penalties For Texting And Driving

Texting and driving is a dangerous concept, yet many people still do it on a daily basis. Michigan lawmakers are looking to cut down on the issue, as they are looking into implementing stricter laws for people that violate the texting and driving ban. These stricter laws would be for people that hurt or killed someone while texting and driving.

Under the proposal, the new law would increase the penalty from one year to five years if someone is killed by a driver that was texting while driving. While this is a great law, Michigan State Police have been working already to stop these injuries or deaths from texting and driving from even happening.

The state police are using unmarked cars to spot people on the highways that are texting and driving. From there, they call a patrol car to pull them over. First Lieutenant Dale Hinz, with Michigan State Police, said, “We had a truck driver here in Paw Paw that was driving on eastbound I-94 and was texting at the time, and ended up causing a seven-vehicle crash, and there was one fatality and several injuries out of that.”

This new initiative by the state police is a way of trying to avoid that dangerous situation from happening again. Lawmakers are looking into stricter texting and driving laws. They hope this would encourage people to put their phones down.

Senator David Knezek said, “These bills would establish a felony for causing death punishable by up to five years, and a maximum fine of $2,000, and a misdemeanor causing serious impairment would be punishable by up to one year, and/or a maximum fine of $500.”

If the bill passes, the new law would go into affect 90 days later.

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