Fatal Red-Light Crashes Catalogued Across Montgomery County

The Philadelphia area is one of the most dangerous in the nation for drivers who run red lights.

Between 2004 and 2013, 7,799 people died in car crashes that involved a driver running a red light. In 2013 alone, 697 died with an estimated 127,000 injured in red-light running crashes.

There were 63 deaths in Philadelphia over that nine-year span, the eighth most in the entire nation.

Several Montgomery County locations had recorded incidents, including the following intersections:

• Horsham: Route 63 and Dresher Road
• Willow Grove: Davisville Road and State Route 63
• Huntington Valley: Buck Road and State Route 2038
• Abington: State Routes 2017 and 2038
• Lansdale: Broad Street and Hancock Street
• Collegeville: Routes 63 and 3001
• Collegeville: Route 29 and Arcola Road
• Plymouth-Meeting: Ridge Pike and Alan Wood Road

That’s according to data from the National Coalition for Safer Roads, which is in the middle of its Stop on Red Week to raise awareness about the dangers of running red lights.

It also released on Wednesday an interactive map showing red-light running deaths across the country from 2004-2013. The map lets you search for your city and state to see how many deaths have occurred in that area.

What are the top cities for number of fatalities over those 10 years?

Here’s the top 10:

1. Houston: 181 deaths
2. Phoenix: 127 deaths
3. Los Angeles: 125 deaths
4. Las Vegas: 105 deaths
5. Chicago: 99 deaths
6. Miami: 82 deaths
7. Dallas: 71 deaths
8. Philadelphia: 63 deaths
9. Tucson: 61 deaths
10. Denver: 60 deaths

The coalition also released data from 2014 gathered from 2,665 red-light cameras across the country to understand nationwide trends, and some of the findings about red-light-running habits may surprise you:

• 3.7 million drivers ran a red-light in 2014.
• The most violations occurred in the afternoon between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.
• Friday was the busiest day for red-light running, while Sunday was the slowest.
• Memorial Day weekend had the highest number of red lights ran among holiday travel periods with 37,800.

Check out the full trends and data from the National Coalition for Safer Roads here.