By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Three people died, 82 suffered injuries in more than 300 traffic wrecks in Missouri during the long Thanksgiving holiday counting period. Among those killed, a 44-year-old Union woman who died in a rollover accident on I-29 in extreme northwest Missouri Thanksgiving Day.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol has issued preliminary numbers for the longest holiday counting period of the year, which started Wednesday evening and ended at midnight Sunday.

State highway patrol troopers worked 304 crashes during that period and made 87 drunk driving arrests.

Last year, the patrol reported 462 traffic crashes which resulted in six fatalities and 158 injuries.

This year, two fatalities occurred on Thanksgiving Day, one in central Missouri that took the life of a 40-year-old Branson woman. The second on I-29 in Atchison County killed the woman from Union who lost control of her car on I-29 a mile north of Watson. The vehicle went into a skid, ran off the northbound lanes of the interstate, overturned in the median, and came to rest in the southbound lanes.

An 11-year-old O’Fallon girl died in a crash in St. Charles County Friday.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reports the results are preliminary and subject to change.

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