Deadly crashes in District on track to match last year despite fleet of traffic cameras

Traffic deaths in the District are on pace to match last year’s spike, despite a growing web of enforcement cameras at intersections and along busy roads.

But even with the rise in fatalities, more drivers overall are obeying speed limits and respecting red lights and stop signs, said Charlie Wilson, director of Vision Zero, a multiagency task force charged with eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries in the nation’s capital.

Mr. Wilson, speaking to reporters Tuesday, cited a 2019 study that reported a 30% drop in crashes on District roads with speed cameras.

Drivers may wince when a lens flash leads to a ticket in the mail, Mr. Wilson said, but records show that two-thirds of motorists caught by a camera won’t get cited again.

He said a survey last year found that 80% of D.C. residents support the city’s expansive network of 477 traffic cameras.

Metropolitan Police data shows the 34 fatal collisions so far this year are on track to match last year’s total of 52. That was the highest number of deadly crashes in the District since 54 were recorded in 2007.

“More than in prior years, we’re seeing more cases where cars run into fixed objects,” Mr. Wilson said.

Those incidents have become more common during the warmer spring and summer months.

In June, police said scooter driver Yeferson Josue Dominguez Valero was zipping toward Eastern Avenue Northeast when he tried to drive straight while using a right turn lane.

Authorities said the 29-year-old motorist wound up hitting a traffic island and was thrown from his vehicle. He died in a hospital two days later.

A Subaru was speeding on 16th Street Northwest in May when police said the driver tried to cut off a BMW near Mount Pleasant. The Subaru instead clipped the front of the BMW, lost control and hit a tree, killing 24-year-old passenger Jessica Luna Sanchez at the scene.

Another deadly crash happened that same month right in front of the White House.

Police said James Chester Lewis Jr., 57, zoomed through two red lights along Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest until he collided with the vehicle barrier at the intersection of 15th and E streets. Lewis died at the crash site.

But Mr. Wilson noted that injurious crashes have declined over time even as fatalities have gone up.

According to data from the D.C. Department of Transportation, there were more than 8,000 crashes with minor injuries, such as minor cuts or burns, between 2017-19.

Each of those years also saw well over 400 major crashes, including accidents where people broke a bone or were concussed.

From 2020-23, the data show minor accidents fell to around 6,000 annually, and there were fewer than 400 major crashes every year except in 2021.

Although deadly crashes remain high, Mr. Wilson said that shouldn’t convince the safety architects to ditch methods that are proven to work.

“We’re confident that by increasing the footprint of those cameras, we will see that slowing down more fully across the city, and we will start to see fewer injury crashes,” he said.          

Rick Birt, the director of D.C.’s Highway Safety Office, said most of the harmful crashes are happening in the District’s “High Injury Network” — corridors where motorists are competing for road space with buses, cyclists and pedestrians looking to safely cross.

It’s why Mr. Birt said the District spent grant funding on two roadside trailers aimed at combating distracted driving.

The trailers — one based near the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Missouri Avenue in Northwest, and the other by Benning Road and Oklahoma Avenue in Northeast — use a lidar sensor to detect if motorists are going too fast, aren’t wearing their seat belts or are on their phone while driving.

The trailer will flash a tailored message, such as “Buckle up” or “Phone down,” to the driver as a way of emphasizing the proper road etiquette without hitting a driver with a hefty fine.

“When we started, we found about 33% of drivers were using a cellphone in their hand or up to their ear when they passed by these devices,” Mr. Birt said. “After six weeks of education and outreach, we saw that number drop to 6%.”

Cracking down on scofflaw drivers is another part of trying to keep the roads safe.

Department of Public Works officials discussed a new pilot program that equips a tow truck with a license plate reader. The driver roams the city and hauls away cars with outstanding tickets in the range of $500 to $2,000 or more.

DPW representatives said the District has become so active in towing away cars and scooters that it had to acquire a third impound lot to house the vehicles.

And MPD officials said the department hopes to create a dedicated traffic unit in the coming months to provide more hands-on enforcement for D.C.’s streets.