State police plan crackdown on I-75 next week

FOX 2 - Starting Sunday, Michigan State Police will launch a massive crackdown on I-75 from the Ohio border to the international bridge in the UP.

"So we’re trying to really deter crashes in general," said Lt. Chris Keller, Michigan State Police.

And for Keller, who help will lead the charge,  this hits close to home.

"I’ve had family members die in crashes before that probably could’ve been avoided, and it’s unfortunate," he said.

Keller says troopers will focus on commercial vehicle drivers’ bad habits that are most likely to help cause a crash.

"Using their handheld mobile devices that are not really allowed, following too close, not getting over for emergency vehicles whether it be patrol cars or towing vehicles," he said.

And they are not the only ones that troopers will keep an eye out for.

"We also see a lot of passenger vehicles following too close or staying in commercial motor vehicles' blind spots," he said.

Keller says there were a little more than 14,500 crashes in Michigan in 2021—and nearly 70 percent of those happened in districts in which the I-75 corridor run through them.

"The goal of this upcoming initiative, this upcoming operation, is not to go out there and see how many people we can pull over and see how many tickets we can write," Keller said. "That’s not the goal. If our enforcement effort next week can lower crashes, even if it only saves one fatality, then it was all worth it."

This enforcement effort starts Sunday and will continue to Saturday of next week.