KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- With nearly 30 more traffic deaths in Kansas City than last year, 2017 is set to go in the books as a deadly year on the roads.
This weekend alone, Kansas City police have responded to several deadly crashes. One of them involved a church van,
Just after 9 a.m. Sunday, a blue Kia crossed over the center line on Oldham Rd., colliding with the van. The woman driving the Kia was killed and four people in the van were injured.
It’s one of many deadly crashes across the metro over just 24 hours, adding to a deadly year on Kansas City roads.
"We don't have any real patterns that are coming out but we do just have a lot of fatalities lately,” said Captain Joe Crayon, Commander of KCPD Traffic Investigations Unit.
The collision was one of three deadly crashes over the weekend in Kansas City.
Earlier Sunday morning police responded to another crash on I-670 near Genessee St. One person died in that crash.
Another fatality happened at 33rd and Gillham Saturday night. A 33-year-old old man was killed when he lost control of his motorcycle and crossed over the center line into oncoming traffic.
"That's too many, it's too many. People need to slow down and pay attention to what they are doing,” said Deb Randol, Sergeant with Accident Investigation with KCPD.
The young woman who died on Oldham road Sunday morning is the 96th person killed on Kansas City roads this year. Last year, 68 traffic fatalities were reported in Kansas City, Mo.
“We're not really seeing a trend but it seems like every time we have a high murder rate we have a high accident rate too,” said Crayon.
As we head into the holidays, police are warning people to be extra careful as Christmas and New Year’s are among the deadliest times to be on the road.
Police say impairment is involved in more than half of deadly crashes.
