Councilman wants more data on Philadelphia crashes to aid in safety measures

Listen
 Councilman Curtis Jones wants to collect and share more information on collisions in Philadelphia to improve safety. (Tom MacDonald/WHYY)

Councilman Curtis Jones wants to collect and share more information on collisions in Philadelphia to improve safety. (Tom MacDonald/WHYY)

A Philadelphia councilman is looking to collect — and share — more data on traffic crashes. 

Councilman Curtis Jones said his bill is designed to find patterns in car crashes in the city.

“Police don’t always tell traffic — and definitely don’t tell Council — when there is a pattern of auto accidents, whether it’s collision between automobiles, but particularly when a car hits a person,” he said.

Jones says the bill would require police to share information on crashes with Council, as well as other city government agencies such as the Streets Department.

  • WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

“Maybe there is something we can do to improve safety, whether it’s swapping out a stop light for a stop sign, whether it is traffic-calming methods we can do through capital budget,” he said. “But we should not ignore statistics of injury as it relates to our ability to apply safety measures.”

Jones said collecting the information might even save lives.

WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal