Five killed in Labor Day weekend crashes

Five people died in traffic crashes over the Labor Day holiday weekend across Missouri.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol on Tuesday reported numbers from the holiday counting period, which started at 6 p.m. Friday and ended at 11:59 p.m. Monday. Eleven people were killed on the roads during the 2017 Labor Day weekend.

The patrol investigated 258 crashes on state highways during the holiday weekend this year with 92 injuries total. Troopers also investigated 97 drunken driving cases, the agency said in a news release.

Troopers said all five people who were killed were on motorcycles, but none of those crashes happened in mid-Missouri. Of those five, four were wearing helmets.

None of this year’s deaths occurred in Troop F, which covers much of central Missouri. Two people died Friday and another on Saturday in eastern Missouri. Another was killed Saturday in Springfield, and the fifth fatality was discovered Monday in southwest Missouri, though troopers did not know when the crash actually happened.

The patrol counted nine boat crashes over the weekend with three injuries and 15 cases of boating while intoxicated.

There were no deaths at the Lake of the Ozarks.

Sergeant Scott White with the Missouri State Highway Patrol said it’s been that way for the past few years now.

“Fortunately, most incidents were minor (at the Lake of the Ozarks),” White said. “We had six total (boat) crashes with three injuries and zero fatalities and that’s been the same case for the last couple years. So we’re glad to see that and troopers did arrest seven people for boating while intoxicated.”

State troopers said they always encourage people to wear seat belts, something motorcycle drivers don’t have. Not all boats have them, either.