Two dead after separate hit-and-run crashes overnight

Two people were killed in separate hit-and-run crashes in Philadelphia early Friday morning, police said.

At 1:30 a.m., a 67-year-old man was killed when he was hit by a person driving a car on the 200 block of North 63rd Street, in West Philadelphia, said Police Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore. The man, whom police did not identify, was pronounced dead around 3:30 a.m. at Lankenau Medical Center, he said.

It is unclear what happened leading up to the fatal crash — police are still searching for video footage, said Vanore. Police believe the driver who struck the pedestrian was operating a light-colored, possibly white, SUV, he said.

An hour later, around 2:30 a.m. in the Tacony neighborhood, a person driving a dark-colored SUV westbound at a high rate of speed on the 4800 block of Levick Street hit a pedestrian who was crossing the street and then fled the scene toward Torresdale Avenue, said Vanore.

The pedestrian, a woman whom police did not immediately identify, was pronounced dead at 2:57 a.m., he said .

Hit-and-run crashes in the city continue at a swift pace of more than one a day. As a consequence, the police department has increased enforcement on busy thoroughfares in the city.

There have been 473 hit-and-run crashes in Philadelphia as of Oct. 15, according to police data. Of those, 36 were fatal, the data shows. Last year through the same time period, there were 588 such crashes, 26 of them fatal.