57 traffic deaths so far in 2016 in Philly, including 7 children

The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia released some stark statistics this week about traffic fatalities in the city.

In 2016, the coalition reported, 57 people were killed in traffic accidents — the overwhelming majority of them pedestrians. Seven of those were children, and 10 were hit-and-run crashes.

Philadelphia has some of the least safe urban roads in the country. There were about 11,000 automobile crashes a year on average from 2009 to 2013, resulting in 90 to 100 deaths a year, the highest rate per 100,000 people among peer cities including New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, according to an earlier report from the bicycle coalition.

The 2016 database, compiled from several sources including PennDot and the Philadelphia Police Department, profiles each fatality, giving names, ages, location and circumstances of the crash, plus links to news reports about them.

A map of the incidents confirms what many Philadelphians already know: Pedestrian fatalities tend to cluster in Center City and along Roosevelt Boulevard.

The data points correspond directly to the safety concerns cited as key priorities for Kelley Yemen, who was recently hired as the city's first Complete Streets director. She starts Nov. 7.