Highway Patrol Out in Force this Holiday Weekend

(Farmington) You’ll notice extra Missouri state troopers on the highways throughout the long Memorial Day weekend.

Patrol Captain John Hotz (hots) describes this weekend as the unofficial start of the summer season.

Hotz says the patrol is participating in Operation CARE this weekend which stands for Crash Awareness Reduction Effort.

Many will also be heading to Missouri lakes and streams this weekend.

Hotz urges boaters to wear a life jacket and to never ride with an impaired operator.

There were seven boating crashes during Missouri’s 2019 Memorial Day weekend.

Those crashes killed two people and injured three.

Troopers are also especially concerned about speeding and increasing fatalities on the highways, despite traffic being down 50-percent in parts of the state because of COVID-19.

There have been 288 traffic fatalities statewide in 2020, compared to 271 at this time last year.

Troopers clocked a man driving 143 miles-per-hour on Highway 65 near Sedalia in April.