Thanksgiving road travel peaks before winding down Sunday night

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Although Thanksgiving was Thursday, Sunday’s roads hosted many people traveling home from their holiday destinations.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the Missouri State Highway Patrol's counting period started. Troopers will record the injuries and deaths that happen on the road until midnight on Sunday, once most of the Thanksgiving traffic has slowed down.

Last year, the count tallied 114 injuries and nine deaths on Missouri roads during those five days.

“Wednesday and today are the two busiest travel holidays of the Thanksgiving time period,” said Cpl. Kyle Green with Troop F. “So far, we've worked a few injury crashes, but nothing that has been abnormal- but obviously [Sunday] is not over.”

2022’s counting period is ongoing until midnight but as of Sunday night, the MSHP online traffic crash reports records about 75 crashes and six deaths on the road across Missouri this year. In Mid-Missouri, Troop F reported three crashes and one serious injury.

“The roadways are still busy. They will be for the next several hours of people trying to return home,” Green said Sunday afternoon. “There's no sense in speeding or driving in a careless and impaired manner. You know, we just want everybody to get safely from point A to point B and to get that done. We need everybody's help and making sure that they're not driving recklessly.”

Green said one crash in Springfield killed four people over the holiday weekend.

“Most of the interstates and major highways are gonna be very busy,” Green said, advising those on the roads Sunday, “Just make sure that you get home safely and make sure everybody else does as well by, like I said, buckling up, making sure you're not texting and driving and making sure you're not going too fast.”