Tulsa Police: Number of wrecks down for the year

While two major crashes led to a lot of traffic headaches early Tuesday in Tulsa, the news for the year so far is good.

Almost simultaneous wrecks on the Broken Arrow Expressway at the Interstate 44 junction and on Highway 169 at the BA backed up traffic for miles during the morning rush hour.

A total of five vehicles were involved, with three people taken to the hospital; all were expected to recover.

Tulsa Police Cpl. Brian Collum told KRMG at the scene the wrecks both involved inattentive drivers, and that is a factor he sees at a lot of wrecks, especially in the morning.

He also said drivers on the BA will refuse to yield to merging traffic, which makes the morning commute more dangerous.

Meanwhile, TPD Ofcr. Craig Murray says there is some good news for the city.

Year-to-date, Tulsa has seen about 600 fewer crashes than last year as of the end of September.

Murray said the number of crashes is down every month for the year except in January, which saw an increase of 20 wrecks over the same month in 2012.

March actually saw a drop of 186 collisions from the previous year.