Missouri has recorded its first traffic fatality of 2014—a Florida man killed when his car hit a tree in Madison County, in southeast Missouri. The Highway Patrol says Newell Gillenwater was killed about 32 hours into the new year. A passenger in his car has been flown to a St. Louis hospital. His death is the first Missouri traffic fatality since December 29th.
Missouri had a rare holiday with no traffic fatalities to end 2013 and to start the new year. The Highway Patrol worked 116 crashes during the thirty-hour counting period that began at 6 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. Forty-two people were hurt.
Missouri’s 741st, and last, traffic fatality of 2013 was Clubb resident Deborah Allen whose vehicle went off an icy road and hit an embankment. The 2013 total is almost five-hundred fewer than the number of deaths in 2005 and the lowest total since 1947.
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