Philadelphia saw a dire traffic fatality toll this weekend in 6 hours

Three separate car accidents spanning a six-hour period resulted in four deaths and one person injured this weekend, a high single-day toll that came just days after state officials announced a new federal grant to make high-crash Philadelphia streets safer.

The fatalities took place along streets that have been cited as some of the city’s most dangerous for traffic accidents because they have the highest rates of serious injuries or deaths per mile. They were identified as part of Vision Zero, a program through which Mayor Jim Kenney said he aims to reduce traffic deaths to zero by the year 2030.

Dondra Wade, 64, from East Falls, was pronounced dead at 2:30 a.m. Sunday by paramedics at the intersection of Fox Street and West Allegheny Avenue, where he appeared to have been struck by a car, police said. Law enforcement did not know what the vehicle looked like or who was driving it, and said their investigation was continuing.

About 3:15 a.m. in West Philadelphia, a Dodge Charger crashed into a Hyundai Sonata at the intersection of 52nd and Walnut Streets, killing two people and critically injuring a third, who was admitted to Lankenau Medical Center. Police did not identify the driver or the victims, and said the investigation was also continuing.

Then, about 8:15 a.m., a vehicle in the 5100 block of North Broad Street in the city’s Logan section crashed into a parked car and a railing. The driver was taken to Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Police did not identify him.

Earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey announced a $25 million federal grant intended to make such high-crash corridors less deadly in seven historically disadvantaged neighborhoods in North, West, and Northeast Philadelphia. The money will go toward slowing down vehicles and adding protections for pedestrians and cyclists.

Despite Kenney’s goals, so far the city numbers seem to be trending in the wrong direction. Sixty-three people were killed in traffic accidents in the first six months of this year, according to data compiled by the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, higher than the number of deaths in the first six months of 2019, 2020, and 2021.

In 2020, the last year that Vision Zero released its own data, traffic fatalities actually spiked, with 156 people dying that year in accidents involving pedestrians, motorcyclists, cyclists, and drivers. In a news conference about the data, Kenney blamed the rise on people “driving like idiots.”

The Bicycle Coalition pushed back, saying that the purpose of Vision Zero was to design safer streets so that even when people drive badly, no one dies.

“We know that people are driving like idiots already. The idea is that streets are set up to protect people from mistakes, because nobody can drive perfectly — or bike or walk perfectly,” Randy LoBasso, former policy director at the coalition, told The Inquirer at the time.