Another pedestrian has died after being struck by a car on Broad Street
Visva Varathakumar, of North Philadelphia, was crossing from the east side to the west side of North Broad Street at Fairmount Avenue when he was struck just after 1 p.m. Saturday, police said.
A driver struck and killed a pedestrian on Broad Street in the city’s Francisville section Saturday afternoon.
Just after 1 p.m., the pedestrian, identified as Visva Varathakumar, 20, of North Philadelphia, was crossing from the east side to the west side of North Broad Street at Fairmount Avenue when a 24-year-old woman driving a 2022 Nissan Rogue northbound on Broad struck him. Varathakumar landed on the hood of the car and hit his head on its windshield, police said.
Varathakumar was transported to Jefferson University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:13 p.m., police said.
The driver was not identified by police.
The incident came amid a planned enforcement effort that will include the installation of speed cameras along the length of Broad Street to cut down on crashes. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker signed a bill moving that effort forward earlier in June, expanding on a law that allowed speed cameras to permanently remain on Roosevelt Boulevard.
Since the cameras went up on the Boulevard in June 2020, crashes there with fatalities and serious injuries, and pedestrian-involved crashes have dropped sharply, The Inquirer reported last year.
On Broad Street between 2018 and 2022, 169 people were killed or seriously injured, and 465 pedestrians were struck in that time frame, according to PennDot data. Speeding was determined to be a factor in 165 collisions.
The cameras clock vehicle speeds and capture images of vehicles’ license plates in order to ticket violations. The timeline for installing the system has not yet been determined, but once the cameras are installed, drivers will receive mailed warnings for the first 60 days. Following that period, $100 tickets will be issued for drivers traveling 11 mph or more over the speed limit.
It was not immediately clear what speed the vehicle was traveling in Saturday’s crash. An investigation into the incident remains ongoing.