Crashes Keep Patrol Busy During Start Of Holiday Weekend

The Missouri State Highway Patrol’s holiday counting period started Friday at 6 p.m. and continues through 6 p.m. on Monday, but through the first two days, local troopers have stayed active.

Troop I, which includes Crawford, Phelps and Dent counties among others, has taken four crash reports through Sunday morning.

All four have involved a motorcycle, UTV or ATV.

The patrol said James H. Goers, 62, Steelville, was killed Saturday morning on Hickory Road in Crawford County when he overturned his Harley Davidson. Goers was not wearing a safety device.

In Phelps County, an Iowa man had moderate injuries and was flown to University Hospital in Columbia when he lost control of his Harley Davidson.

Neil Nerem, 38, Boone, Iowa, crashed on Highway M, four miles west of Edgar Springs.

Nerem was not wearing a safety device.

An hour later in Phelps County, a St. James woman was flown to Cox Hospital in Springfield after being ejected from a Polaris RZR.

Kristi Becklenberg, 49, was the passenger in the vehicle, which was traveling on a private road about 1.5 miles north of Highway ZZ.

Adam Becklenberg, 40, St. James, made a sharp left turn and overturned.

Kristi Becklenberg, who was not wearing a safety device, was ejected.

At 7:55 p.m. on National Forest Service Road in Phelps County, the patrol said a Camdenton teen was ejected from an ATV.

The 13-year-old female was traveling on a 1997 Yamaha Timberwolf when she struck a pothole in the roadway, lost control and overturned.

She was not wearing a safety device.

In Troop C, which includes Franklin and Washington counties, the highway patrol has investigated five accidents.

One was a fatal crash on Highway E in Jefferson County that took the life of a 20-year-old Hillsboro man.

A Bourbon man had serious injuries Saturday night when he crashed his 2005 Triumph Sprint on Highway EE, south of Highway 185 in Washington County.

William A. Bergner, 45, had serious injuries.

He was wearing a safety device.

In Jefferson County, a St. Louis man had serious injuries when he crashed a 2006 Yamaha FZ6RC on Old Lemay Ferry Road.

Mark Guillermo, who was wearing a safety device, swerved after passing a vehicle, began to wobble and struck a utility pole.

He was ejected from the bike.