PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (Sept. 5, 2012) — While the Labor Day weekend led to numerous wrecks statewide and many arrests due to stepped-up enforcement efforts by local police and state troopers, none of the Pulaski County crashes resulted in injuries to drivers or passengers.

Two local people, however, were arrested during the Labor Day counting period which began at 6 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 31, and ran until midnight on Monday, Sept. 3.

Those arrested were:

• Jeffery D. Smith, 36, of Waynesville, who state troopers arrested at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday in Texas County on charges of driving while intoxicated and speeding 80 mph in a 65 mph zone, and
• Shane R. Wall, 38, of Richland, who state troopers arrested at 1:28 a.m. on Monday in Camden County on charges of failure to drive on the right half of the roadway and driving while intoxicated.

Smith was transported to the Texas County Sheriff’s Department and subsequently released; Wall was released.

In the six-county state patrol district known as Troop I which runs along Interstate 44 from Laclede County through Pulaski County and Laclede County to Crawford County and also takes in Maries and Dent counties, troopers investigated 22 crashes resulting in five injuries and a total of five arrests for driving while intoxicated, not including those of Smith and Wall which occurred outside the jurisdiction of Troop I. That’s an increase over last year’s statistics, which showed 15 crashes, five injuries, and seven drunk driving arrests.

Nobody was killed in Troop I either this year or last year during the Labor Day weekend.

Troopers also issued 217 citations for speeding, 79 for seat belt violations, and five for child restraint violations, assisted 176 motorists, and issued 526 warnings.

On a statewide basis, city and state law enforcement personnel investigated six fatal crashes, less than half of the 13 people killed last year; four of this year’s six fatal crashes were investigated by state troopers and a total of two deaths were investigated by St. Louis city police and Cuba city police. State troopers investigated a total of 201 crashes with 144 injuries, arrested 147 people for drunk driving, arrested seven people for boating while intoxicated on state waterways, and handled three boating crashes with one injury.