A new report from the state has found seat belt use slightly down among Michigan drivers this year.

Speaking on the Michigan Department of Transportation podcast, Talking Michigan Transportation, Michigan State University’s Timothy Gates said in 2024, 92% of Michigan drivers and front seat passengers reported wearing their seatbelts. That’s compared to 92.4% in 2023 and 92.9% in 2022.

“In comparison to last year, it’s down, we call it marginally down,” Gates said. “It’s certainly within a margin of error., but our long-term trends we are seeing, if we look at, let’s say, post-pandemic to pre-pandemic, there’s a definite down tick in safety belt use in Michigan for front occupants.”

However, not all the data is bad. Gates said fewer people are using cellphones while driving.

“We saw about a 1.2% decline in handheld use by drivers. And so last year we saw 6.7% of drivers were using mobile device handheld, either talking, holding it to their ear or texting. This year that was 5.5%. So again, 1.2 percentage point decrease.”

Gates said that might sound like a small decrease, but it will eventually mean fewer crashes. He noted the state’s hands-free law took effect last July, so perhaps drivers are catching on they can face penalties for so much as holding a cell phone while behind the wheel.

However, Gates says the report has also found one bad driver behavior from the pandemic that lingers. He said people are still speeding too much.