PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — When Saa-yon Banks was 5 years old, his entire family was struck by a speeding driver as they crossed Roosevelt Boulevard. The now 17-year-old was the only survivor.
“You will never know…. When you lose one, you know how hard that is. My mom lost two generations right here,” said his aunt Latanya Byrd at a City Council hearing Monday, where a committee advanced a bill permitting speed cameras on Broad Street.
The bill is an expansion of the one that allowed speed cameras on Roosevelt Boulevard in 2020, which Byrd advocated for. They are credited with cutting pedestrian crashes in half and reducing speeding by 95%.
“This program is not about issuing tickets but about changing driver behavior to preserve human life,” said Chris Puchalsky, director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives of the City Transportation Office, known as OTIS.
Puchalsky says Broad Street was chosen because it is the next most dangerous road in the city, with 189 fatal or serious injury crashes from 2018 to 2022. He says there will be an education campaign and a warning period before the Parking Authority, which will oversee the program, begins issuing tickets.
Exactly where the cameras will go has yet to be decided.
The bill will get to the full council in time for a vote before the summer recess.