Despite spending the past 14-plus months in a pandemic, nearly 100 more people died in traffic crashes in Michigan last year than in 2019, according to preliminary data released by the state police.

The state police Criminal Justice Information Center said Wednesday that 1,083 people were killed in 2020, compared to 985 in 2019. The number of deaths last year also were the most since 1,084 people were killed in crashes in 2007, as reported by The Associated Press.

Crashes and the number of people injured were down in 2020.

Data shows 60,986 injuries in 2020 and 74,963 in 2019. There were 314,377 crashes in 2019 and 245,432 last year.

Traffic deaths involving alcohol increased from 295 in 2019 to 326 last year.

“Even though there was a dramatic drop in traffic crashes and injuries during 2020, there was an unfortunate surge in fatalities,” said Michael L. Prince, Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning director.

Prince said his office “will be coordinating high-visibility enforcement campaigns this summer focusing on impaired driving and seat belt use to reverse the trends we are seeing.”

Fatalities involving bicycles, motorcycles and pedestrians all increased last year over 2019.

With a large portion of last year having much more empty roadways than the year before, we suspect that two of the biggest contributing factors to these fatalities are people driving too fast for conditions and people texting and driving, taking their eyes off the road. We see it all the time up here, and it’s a huge problem that needs to come to an end.

The Mining Journal is in support of our Michigan police officers cracking down and writing far more tickets for both of these offenses. After all, it could curb these behaviors in some people, and potentially save lives.

— The Mining Journal, Marquette