By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Missouri State Highway Patrol officials say four people died in traffic crashes over the long New Year's holiday period.
A 48-year-old Kansas City man died in a Clinton County crash on Friday.
Troop H spokesman, Sergeant Jake Angle, says a count of fatalities is always tragic. Other numbers over the New Year's holiday period are encouraging.
"Of course some of those numbers we love to see, removed 11 impaired drives from the roadway, made one drug arrest, what we don't like to see is that one fatality obviously." Angle tells St. Joseph Post
Angle adds that throughout the year the number of people killed in car crashes who weren’t wearing a seat belt were up in Troop H.
Sergeant Angle adds that winter storms this past weekend played a role in many of the wrecks.
"You know weather always throws a dynamic in there that is hard to control, nobody can control the weather," Angle says "But that's just something we have to continue, it doesn't change our mission, it doesn't change our plans when we go into these holiday periods, now it may adjust how our time is spent during those periods."
Angle says the patrol is always looking for the public's help in keeping traffic fatalities down, especially by making sure motorists buckle up no matter how short the trip.