Missouri State Highway Patrol reports 12 traffic deaths during holiday

Twelve people died in Missouri crashes over the Independence Day weekend.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol on Monday released its statistics for the Fourth of July holiday counting period, which ended late Sunday.

In a news release, the patrol said there were 12 traffic deaths, no boating deaths, and three drownings during the counting period that started on Wednesday.

Troopers worked 376 traffic crashes that resulted in 139 injuries and nine deaths, according to the release. The crashes that caused the other three deaths were investigated by other agencies. Troopers also made 160 arrests for driving while intoxicated and 110 drug arrests.

One of the traffic deaths happened when a Slater man crashed a utility vehicle in Saline County.

Troopers also worked 11 boating crashes that resulted in five injuries, but no deaths. Troopers made 12 boating while intoxicated arrests and 28 drug arrests on the water. There were also three drownings during the counting period.

Trooper Scott White said 2019 was a little out of the ordinary though.

“It was a little unusual this year because our counting period was 102 hours,” White said. “Last year it was only 30 because the Fourth of July fell in the middle of the week.”

During that 30-hour 2018 counting period, four people were killed and 220 were hurt in 437 traffic crashes, the release said. In 2018, 40 people were arrested for driving while intoxicated.

White said 2019 was more comparable to 2017 because the length of the counting periods was the same.

“We’re looking about the same between those two years in central Missouri,” White said. “We didn’t have any highway fatalities in 2019 or 2017. We did have one drowning at the Lake of the Ozarks this year.”

Statewide was a different story though.

“Compared to the same amount of hours in 2017, this year the fatalities were about half,” White said. “We had 26 fatalities back in 2017 and this year only had 12.”

White attributed the lower number of traffic deaths in 2019 to people paying attention to highway patrol warnings and people wearing seatbelts.