THREE TRAFFIC DEATHS OCCUR IN THE REGION

Traffic accidents during the Labor Day weekend killed at least 14 people on Missouri roads, including three fatalities in Southeast Missouri.

Two men and a teenage girl were killed in separate accidents in Southeast Missouri, the Missouri Highway Patrol reported. None of the victims were wearing seat belts.

Willie Glass, 69, of Cairo, Ill., died Sunday afternoon when his car went off Highway 77 and struck a tree three miles south of Benton in Scott County, the patrol said.

James Hinson, 20, of Bloomfield died Sunday after his pickup truck ran off Route M in northeastern Stoddard County, the patrol said.

An Ironton teenager was killed and a Florissant couple were injured in a two-vehicle accident Monday evening on Route N, about two miles south of Bismarck in St. Francois County.

Angela Huff, 16, was killed when the vehicle she was driving slid across the wet highway into an oncoming pickup truck driven by Adrian Lundrey, 59, of Florissant, the patrol said.

Lundrey and his wife, Shirley Lundrey, 54, suffered minor injuries. The patrol spokesman said Huff was not wearing a seat belt, but the Lundreys were.

The Missouri fatalities this year nearly matched the 1990 total of 15 people killed during the holiday. In 1989, 11 people were killed on Missouri highways over the Labor Day weekend.

But a spokesman for the Missouri Highway Patrol Troop C in Flat River said Monday the troop's four-county area was relatively "quiet" during the holiday weekend.

"The first fatality occurred tonight in St. Francois County," he said. "Other than that, it's been pretty quiet. We've had just five accidents in the whole period, with one fatality and one with injuries."

Other Southeast Missouri accidents included a two-vehicle accident Monday in which three persons were injured near Dexter in Stoddard County.

The patrol said the accident occurred on a curve on Route H, four miles south of Dexter. A westbound vehicle driven by Heather Lindley, 17, of Bernie collided at 6:55 p.m. with an eastbound pickup driven by David Allstun, 27, of Dexter. Mark Smith, 41, of Bloomfield was a passenger in the Allstun vehicle.

Lindley and Smith were taken to Dexter Memorial Hospital with moderate injuries. Allstun refused treatment, the patrol said.

Allstun was cited for failure to drive on the right half of the road and driving while intoxicated.

David Risinger, a radio operator for the Highway Patrol's Troop E in Poplar Bluff, said there had been numerous accidents in the region over the holiday period, which officially ended at midnight Monday.

"It seems like we have had quite a bit of activity in the radio room as far as accidents," he said. "I have 10 accidents logged on this day so far, and five of those are injury accidents."

David Felton of the Cape Girardeau Police said the department had a busy weekend in terms of traffic accidents, particularly Monday.

"We've had plenty of accidents in the last eight hours," Felton said Monday night. "For the most part, they've been a lot of minor accidents."

Felton estimated there were at least 10 vehicle accidents in the city Monday afternoon and evening. "That's pretty heavy, but I think the rain had a lot to do with that," he added.

In other fatal accidents around the state:

Volund Rasmussen, 28, of Jefferson City was pinned under his tractor-trailer when it went off the road and down an embankment Saturday morning on Missouri Highway 89 near Linn in Osage County. The patrol said the vehicle burned after the crash.

Gregory Gidley, 20, of Fort Leonard Wood died Sunday night of injuries suffered earlier in the day in a Camden County crash. The patrol said Gidley was riding in a vehicle that collided with another on a road north of Montreal.

Michele Douthart, 22, died Sunday night when her car collided with another vehicle on U.S. 61 in Pike County. Her hometown was not known, the patrol said.

An elderly Oklahoma man died after an accident Sunday morning in Clay County. Otto Endres, 98, of Tulsa, Okla., was injured when the car he was riding in struck a tractor-trailer on Interstate 35, the patrol said.

A 25-year-old Kansas City man died Saturday after the car he was riding in went out of control and struck a tree along Swope Parkway, police said. The man's name was not available late Monday.

Nina Ricks, 20, of St. Louis died early Saturday in St. Louis when the car she was riding in was struck by a second vehicle, which ran a red light, said Police Sgt. Stephen Olish.

Heine Bos, 70, of rural Rogersville was killed Saturday in a car-train collision east of Seymour.

A couple died in a crash Friday and two other people died in separate accidents Friday, authorities said.

Some information for this article was provided by The Associated Press.