Missouri State Highway Patrol increasing patrols on roadways for the holiday weekend

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Missouri State Highway Patrol is increasing its number of troopers on roadways for the holiday weekend.

Corporal Kyle Green says troopers will be on the lookout for any reckless driving.

"We have an increase in troopers out looking for hazardous moving violations; obviously when we have an increase in traffic like this, there's more likely to be crashes, so we will have troopers stationed out throughout the major highways and interstates to look out for those violations," Green says.

The highway patrol will also be increasing their forces on Sunday from 10 in the morning until 10 at night.

Last year, the highway patrol reported 321 crashes during holiday travel; 72 of those resulted in someone getting hurt and nine were deadly crashes.

Troopers recommend drivers buckle up and slow down with the increase in traffic out on roadways.