Pedestrians and Bicyclists continue to make up a majority of total fatalities

As 2026 kicks off, we are reflecting on the impact that traffic violence has had on Philadelphia and across the commonwealth in 2025. For the first time since 2020, fatalities have started to trend down closer to where they were in 2019. Each life saved means another family member at the table. Yet as we celebrate progress, there are still many families who remain incomplete. 

Traffic deaths dropped 28% from 2024 to 2025, by far the biggest drop Philadelphia has seen since 2020. Similar trends are being seen in other major metropolitan cities across the country (DC, NYC, and SF). Like these cities, Philadelphia has deployed the use of automated speed cameras, speed bumps, protected bike lanes and more to slow drivers and prioritize the safety of vulnerable road users. Despite interventions to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, a majority of vulnerable users are being killed on roads that don’t have any safety measures. 

Unlike many municipalities, the Philadelphia Police’s Crash Investigation Division (CID) manages a public database of all fatal car crashes in the city that gets updated regularly throughout the year (Open Data Philly). Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation also puts out a report but it comes out every other year (VRU report) and there is no data available for 2024-2025. We dove into CID’s dataset and compared how many people were killed in car crashes this year compared to the last 6 years**.  

PA Safe Roads PAC was created because there was no group specifically focused on building the political will to make roads safe across the commonwealth. Our advocacy focuses on supporting candidates for the state legislature who are committed to policies in transportation and law enforcement that are proven to reduce fatalities and injuries from vehicular crashes.

It is promising to see the total number of traffic fatalities begin to reduce, however vulnerable users continue to make up an outsized percentage at 52% of the total fatalities compared to 36% in 2019. Fatal hit and run crashes have also seen a similar trend.

The line tracking Hit and Run crashes includes pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers who were killed between 2019-2025.

Late 2025, the Bob and Barbara’s and music community are grieving the loss of beloved DJ, June Rodriguez, after a fatal hit and run. June was the 7th person to be killed while riding a bike in 2025. Almost three weeks after the crash, the police are still searching for the driver who hit him.

From a young age we have learned that if someone is killed in a car crash that it was an accident, and there was nothing anyone could have done to change the outcome. In some cases, the person who is killed is blamed for their own death. However, there are decades of research, along with practical and low-cost solutions, which prove that eliminating traffic fatalities is possible. 

We advocate for building infrastructure that protects the most vulnerable users of the road, educates drivers, and enforces current laws so that our society no longer feels the pain of losing a loved one to traffic violence. 

Traffic violence is not an insolvable problem. There are bills in the legislature right now that will dramatically improve road safety for vulnerable users. We are here to proactively advocate for solutions and not just passively complain about the problem.

2025 was a big year for our priorities. We saw progress on all the issues we have been advocating for;

• Parking Protected Bike Lane legislation passed the House with bipartisan support and was referred to the Senate Transportation Committee
  • A bipartisan companion bill was introduced in the Senate as well
• Jay Alert legislation was introduced in the House and a bipartisan senate co-sponsor memo was released in the Senate
• Two co-sponsor memos were released that would expand red light and speed cameras to the city of Allentown
• Red light camera expansion legislation was introduced in the House
• Vulnerable Road User legislation was introduced in the House
• A co-sponsorship memo was released to establish a speed inhibitor program to slow down super speeders

There is a lot to do in 2026 and we are determined to make even more progress, but to do that, we need your help. PA Safe Roads PAC is made up of volunteers and we rely on individual contributions to fund direct advocacy. 

Meet our new Board Member

Elizabeth Hocker is the newest board member of the PA Safe Roads PAC. Elizabeth became an advocate for safe streets shortly after her 17 year old son, Damien Hocker, lost his life in a hit and run while walking home from the gym in 2024. Since then she has succeeded in getting safety improvements made to the road Damien was crossing when he was killed and has been actively working towards safer streets at the local, state and national levels. Elizabeth has a bachelor’s degree from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and is a lifelong resident of Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

Please make a gift today to support our work to eliminate traffic fatalities across the Commonwealth.

**Our analysis removes anyone who was killed in an “Act of God”, or a medical emergency or weather related incidents, we also didn’t include anyone who was killed outside of the public right of way so excluding anyone who was killed on freight or passenger rail. However, we did include people who were killed in train crossings, in parking lots, or along on-road rail (trolleys). We did this because it better aligns with how the city analyzes the data and we want to focus on lives that could be saved through better infrastructure, education, and enforcement.