State urges UP drivers to slow down this winter

 The Michigan Office of Highway Planning is urging drivers in the Upper Peninsula to take it easy on slick roads this winter.

Federal traffic safety funds are paying for a safety campaign, which focuses on the U.P. because it has the state's longest and harshest winter driving conditions. The initiative will include television ads and flyers discussing myths and facts about winter driving.

Michael Prince is director of the highway planning office. He says the most important thing drivers can do to avoid crashes is simply slow down. He says most winter wrecks result from people going too fast for the roadway conditions.

A five-year study of U.P. crash statistics shows that men and women are equally apt to crash, and that most wrecks involve drivers older than 40.