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MACON, MO. -- Many of you will be hitting the roads to head to grandma's house for a warm turkey dinner this week.
    
The Missouri State Highway Patrol wants you to arrive at your destination safely and avoid traffic crashes.
    
Historically there are hundreds of crashes and even some deaths over the Thanksgiving holiday.

“Without a doubt the Thanksgiving Day holiday period is a huge travel day not only in the state of Missouri but nationwide.  With that in mind, we know that there's going to be a lot of people that are going to be traveling over this holiday period and certainly we want people to focus their attention on being good safe drivers and getting to their destination safely,” said Sgt. Brent Bernhardt of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, “Last year 14 people were killed in some 1700 plus traffic crashes.”

The highway patrol is participating in two enforcement campaigns this week, ‘Operation Care’ and ‘Ten-Mile-Trooper.’
  
All troopers will work at some point during the holiday as part of ‘Operation Care’ and troopers will be stationed at ten mile intervals along Highway 63 in Troop B.

Bernhardt also encourages all motorists to choose a sober designated driver if they choose to consume alcoholic beverages.

If you encounter any problems or need to report an incident, you can call 1-800-525-5555 or dial *55 from a cellular phone.