We reviewed the Philadelphia Police Crash Investigative Division (CID) data from 2022 and here’s what we found.
We compared the 2022 data reported by the CID to the data reported by PennDOT in previous years. It should be noted that PennDOT takes a year to review and clean up all police department data from around the state, so the 2022 numbers are subject to change.
- While the number of traffic fatalities is still well above pre-pandemic levels, the good news is that there were fewer deaths than in 2021 or 2020. In this regard, the traffic fatality trend is moving in the right direction. This demonstrates that Vision Zero strategies are slowly making progress, but Philadelphia still has work to do to drive the number down to pre-pandemic levels and beyond.
- However, the trend of pedestrians killed each year is increasing, even since 2020. Nearly twice the number of pedestrians were killed in 2022 then in 2019. For the first time, 2 e-scooter users were killed.
Moreover, here is a deeply troubling trend in hit and runs. 2022 is the third year in the row that the number of people killed by motorists leaving the scene in Philadelphia was double the level in 2019. Hit and runs reached an all time high in 2022, which means that hit and runs are rising as a percentage of all fatalities (20% in 2020; 28% in 2022). In 2020-2022, pedestrians comprised 60-70% of the victims of hit and run fatal crashes.
All of these facts reinforce the urgent need to pass state level legislation in Harrisburg to:
- allow automated speed enforcement on all dangerous roads in Philadelphia where speeding is a leading cause of fatal traffic crashes, and
- notify auto body shops when hit and runs have occurred and to encourage them to alert Philadelphia Police when they encounter motor vehicles with suspicious looking crash impacts.
The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, Safe Roads PAC, and Families for Safe Street Greater Philadelphia will be working on legislative campaigns in 2023 to seek their passage.