BY MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
What state highway safety officials call the 100 deadliest days of summer are nearing an end, and traffic fatality numbers have improved from last year.
Assistant State Highway Safety and Traffic Engineer John Nelson says so far this year, numbers are pacing the same as 2020, but the numbers have looked better over the summer.
"When we're talking specifially about the hundred deadliest days, which is what we refer to really the days between Memorial Day and Labor Day," Nelson says. "We actually have seen some progress this year."
July numbers were down from July of last year.
"August has been about on par with last year," Nelson adds. "But we would really like to see us finish that part of summer strong, and give us some momentum heading into the fall."
Nelson says, historically, numbers are up when more people are on the highways, and down when there are fewer drivers, but last year during the pandemic, the numbers were higher than expected.
"But we saw the exact opposite," Nelson tells St. Joseph Post. "The fewer cars we had on the road during the pandemic, and really into this year, the more our fatalities increased and I do think there was some sense of, nobody else is out on the road, I've got all this room, I can drive faster."
Even with the number of traffic fatalities improving over this year, one number still remains high, the number of impaired drivers on the road.
Nelson says that as drivers get ready to head into labor day, they should stay aware of how dangerous drunk or drugged driving can be.
"People are still losing their life on our roadways because of impaired driving, you would think here in 2021, it's very well known that is a deadly and dangerous thing to do, it's inconsiderate, it's selfish, however you want to label it," Nelson says. "But every year we're still losing about 200 people in Missouri, as a result of driving intoxicated or driving under the influence."
To attempt to curb the number of impaired drivers on the roadways, Missouri law enforcement will participate in the 'Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over' campaign, beginning August 20th until Labor Day, the one objective of this campaign being to decrease the number of impaired drivers on the road.