A hit-and-run, an NBA player, and the danger facing every pedestrian on Philly’s streets | Editorial

When the news broke that Kelly Oubre Jr. — who signed with the Philadelphia 76ers in September and quickly became a fan favorite — was seriously injured after being hit by a motorist on Saturday while walking in Center City, fans and team officials rallied together. Another player, Tyrese Maxey, dedicated a 50-point showing the day after the collision to his new teammate’s recovery.

To those who follow traffic safety in the city closely, what happened to Oubre is not shocking or bizarre. Increasingly, it seems, traffic on Philadelphia’s streets is chaotic and out of control. The Sixers aren’t even the only local team to have been impacted. A.J. Brown, the star Eagles wide receiver, was nearly taken out by a car during a charity bike ride in Center City earlier this year.

Collisions involving pro athletes may seize the general public’s attention, but the toll from dangerous streets reaches into all corners of our city. Kevin Saint Clair, a beloved former teacher at Masterman, was killed on Nov. 6 when a car struck him while he was riding his bicycle on Henry Avenue in Roxborough. Typically, the city’s most vulnerable residents bear the brunt of the danger, with Black and brown Philadelphians, children, and seniors most likely to be hit by a car while walking.

The numbers on traffic safety in the city are grim. Philadelphia has twice as many traffic deaths per capita as compared with peer cities like New York and Boston. Each week, an average of five children are hit by a car while walking in our city. The driver who hit Oubre fled the scene, and hit-and-runs have become a regular occurrence. Last year, more than 30 people in our area lost their lives to hit-and-run drivers. Hundreds of others, like Oubre, were seriously injured. An NBC10 investigation put the number of annual hit-and-run collisions at over 10,000, a rate of roughly 40 per day. That’s just in Philadelphia.

Police say that there are so many crashes that they don’t bother counting how many cases they are trying to solve. While the driver who hit Oubre may be found because of his prominence, justice in these cases is rare.

One thing that would help is increased police enforcement of reckless driving. In the years before the pandemic, Philadelphia police made about 40,000 traffic stops for speeding and reckless driving per year. Those figures have fallen off precipitously, down to around 25,000 for the most recent period studied.

Traffic safety experts say that Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker and the city’s next police commissioner should set a target of 50,000 stops for speeding and reckless driving in her first year.

Beyond the police response, the city also needs to overhaul street designs to protect and encourage pedestrians. This can be accomplished by raising crosswalks, building curb bumpouts, protecting sidewalks with bollards in high-traffic areas, and adding red light and speed cameras to more of the city’s most perilous intersections. While everyone wants to get where they need to be as quickly as possible, Spruce Street in Center City — where Oubre was hit — is not a highway. Far too often, motorists in Philadelphia are simply driving too fast.

They also frequently drive oversized trucks and SUVs that limit visibility of pedestrians for drivers — and increase the danger for anyone walking the city’s streets. The silver vehicle that left the scene of Oubre’s crash hit him in the upper chest, fracturing his ribs. If a 6-foot-7 basketball player is hard for a driver to see from behind the wheel of a vehicle, how does anyone else stand a chance?

If a 6-foot-7 basketball player is hard for a driver to see from behind the wheel of a vehicle, how does anyone else stand a chance?

Researchers have warned regulators about the dangers of the supersized vehicles race for nearly two decades. Thanks to the prevalence of these low-visibility cars and trucks, even parking lots have become danger zones. Earlier this month, a 10-year-old boy in Gilbertsville, Pa., was hit while returning a shopping cart at a Giant supermarket.

Everyone in Philadelphia deserves to be able to walk safely around the city. It is long past time to take action on traffic violence.