You’ve likely seen it on the roads and may have even been guilty of it yourselves — distracted driving is becoming more and more of a problem on Southwest Michigan roadways.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, driver inattention is the leading factor in most crashes and near-crashes. In fact, the National Safety Council says that, every day, at least nine Americans die and 100 are injured in distracted driving crashes.

This is a hard truth that is easy to believe. With touch screen enabled vehicles, smart phones, smart watches, radio, food, shaving, makeup, and God knows what else — there are more driving distractions than ever before. A study put out last year by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety indicated that these sorts of visual-manual tasks increase the odds of crash involvement by 83 percent.

Unfortunately, distracted driving persists.

To help highlight this growing problem, April has been designated Distracted Driving Awareness Month to both raise awareness of the dangers and to encourage motorists to ignore the distractions, and #justdrive.

To help sweeten the deal, the Michigan State Police and many local law enforcement agencies are warning drivers to expect a higher chance of being ticketed for distracted driving during the month.

Let’s face it, despite the law, despite the warnings, despite common sense, we can’t always count on others to be alert while they’re driving. That’s why it is up to us, individually, to do the right thing and focus on the road to help keep us, our precious cargo, and other motorists safe on the roads, not just this month, but every time we get behind the wheel.

Kim LaSata, R, represents the 21st District, which includes Berrien, Cass and St. Joseph counties. She can be reached at (517) 373-6960 or SenKLaSata@senate.michigan.gov