ST. LOUIS - Corporal Dallas Thompson with the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) said patrol units saturated Highway 70 and 44 on Wednesday and made a significant number of traffic and physical arrests.

Patrol units issued 84 citations during the operation.

​Those offenses included speeding, expired registration and driver's license violations; some individuals even had outstanding warrants and were taken off the roads and behind bars.

“If you make the wrong move or a lane change and there are other cars around going that speed, catastrophic things can happen,” Thompson said.

​According to MSHP's website, an increase in deadly car crashes has occurred over the last two years for the majority of the state, but especially in the area where officers conducted the operation on Wednesday.

​“That stretch of road there is not you know it's very well known there's lots of crashes that occur there,” Thompson said.

​Thompson said these operations are not new to their department, as they have been doing to cut down on crime in the city which sees reckless drivers and high crime rates.

Thompson says 59 citations were written for various violations, such as speed/hazardous moving violations/registration/driver's license violations. There were also 13 citations written for not wearing seatbelts. Twelve warrant arrests were also made.

​"A lot of those traffic stops sometimes will yield other criminal activity, whether it's drugs, guns, stolen vehicles, things of that nature,” Thompson said.

​Thompson said it's up to drivers on the road to help make highways safe, too.

​“Eliminate those distractions. Slow down and just don't be impaired. Find a designated driver and we can eliminate a lot of these crashes that we're seeing,” he said.

​So far this year, these joint operations between MSHP and STLPD have resulted in 1,046 traffic citations (some include warrant arrests) during 543 vehicle stops.