Mich. State Police Honors Otsego HS, Seat Belt Law Anniversary

The Michigan State Police sent out a couple of releases related to driving in southwest Michigan. MSP is praising the Michigan seat belt law of 2000 for increasing the use of seat belts among drivers in the state.

And MSP announced that Otsego High School is being honored  "during the Governor’s Traffic Safety Advisory Commission (GTSAC) annual awards celebration in East Lansing for Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), which is part of their Strive for a Safer Drive (S4SD) program."

S4SD is a student-led safe driving initiative. SADD has been a part of the S4SD program for the last five years, running a winter driving safety campaign for two years, a distracted driving campaign for two years, and a texting and driving campaign for one year.The students used state grant funds to conduct parking lot observation surveys to determine how many drivers are distracted and used various slogans and a brochure to highlight the different types of distracted driving. At a school assembly, students used a distracted driving simulator and participated in other games designed to show the dangers of driving while distracted. All of SADD’s efforts have helped educate students on how to be a safer driver. - Michigan State Police release

March 10th is the 20^th anniversary of Michigan’s primary seat belt law taking effect. MSP says "prior to the law, Michigan’s seat belt use rate was around 70 percent. It’s been as high as 97.9 percent in 2009 and currently is at 94.4 percent. This law is one of the main reasons traffic fatalities in Michigan have fallen from nearly 1,500 per year in the 1990s to less than 1,000 in 2018."

Along with the honors, conference attendees will be learning the latest information about drowsy driving and the ramifications of legalized marijuana and how it will affect traffic safety.