The state Department of Transportation (MoDOT) says more than 720 motorists have died on Missouri roadways in 2026.
More than half of those killed in vehicles were unbuckled, according to MoDOT. Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain Eric Brown tells reporters that traffic crashes are the result of poor choices by drivers:
“It’s a driver who chooses to drive too fast. They choose to use their phone while driving or they choose to drive while impaired,” Captain Brown says.
Missouri state troopers and MoDOT urge you to slow down, to wear your seat belt and to put your phone down while driving.
Meantime, Missouri’s transportation director says the 250 construction workers in the multiple I-70 work zones between Boonville and Kingdom City urge you to slow down. Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) director Ed Hassinger tells 939 the Eagle that it’s a simple request:
“They see what people are doing on the road and they see people with their phone in their face and all of those things. And these people want to go home every night,” he says.
Director Hassinger spoke after a recent press conference in Columbia. Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain Eric Brown tells 939 the Eagle that it’s difficult to do enforcement in many I-70 work zones because they’re so narrow. The Patrol has used their airplane for some enforcement there.