JEFFERSON CITY -- The Missouri State Highway Patrol is seeing something not seen in 60 years. The lowest fatality rate on the roads.Members of the state patrol and local law enforcement jurisdictions say increased enforcement and special detail has helped reduce the number of people dying on Missouri's roadways.
It's been dropping since 2005 after a spike in 1969. One of the major contributing factors, enforcing seat belts. Colonel James Keathley say it comes into play in every crash. That's why officers have a zero tolerance policy for seat belt violators.
“When we have accidents where people get ejected, the car rolls onto them, they get stuck by another vehicle that are partially ejected that we find are hanging out of a door or window those are the people who's lives would be saved if they were wearing seat belts.”
He adds that new technology in cars is helping keep the numbers down.
The Missouri Department of Transportation says it's committed to making highways safer using bigger, brighter signs and rumble strips. They are also adding more wire guardrails in highway medians. Keathley says those rails have saved lives. But he adds that in some accidents, a fatality is unavoidable.
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