A woman was struck and killed at 19th Street and Lombard Street in Center City Philadelphia, after becoming trapped underneath the vehicle that hit her. Police reported that she was extricated but was later pronounced dead.
According to 6abc, the crash happened just after 6:30 a.m. A witness told the station that the woman was crossing the street west on Lombard when she was struck, and that the driver had the green light at the time.
No further details have been released about the driver, the vehicle, or whether any citations have been issued. The evidence available does not identify the woman who died, and police have not provided additional case information beyond what was reported at the scene.
What Pennsylvania Law Says About Green Lights and Crosswalks
Under Pennsylvania law, drivers facing a circular green signal may proceed, but they are required to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians who are lawfully within the intersection or an adjacent crosswalk, according to Pennsylvania General Assembly, Title 75, Section 3112. The same statute states that pedestrians facing a green signal may also proceed across the roadway within a crosswalk, unless a separate pedestrian-control signal instructs otherwise.
A Rise in Severe Crashes Despite Safety Efforts
Citywide, officials have pointed to mixed trends: the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems for the City of Philadelphia has said that since speed cameras were installed, fatal and serious-injury crashes have decreased 21 percent and pedestrian-involved crashes have dropped 50 percent, per a dashboard released by the city's Philly Stat 360 and Vision Zero program.
Yet the city has also acknowledged a troubling countertrend. The city's Vision Zero Annual Report 2024 said that “every life lost to traffic violence is tragic and the only acceptable number of traffic deaths is zero,” adding that the number of severe crashes resulting in fatalities has risen. The same report noted that medians or pedestrian refuge islands can help improve safety by allowing pedestrians to cross one direction of traffic at a time.
Philadelphia's broader Vision Zero framework is built around what the city calls a safe-systems approach, one that looks beyond the immediate conditions of any single crash to address connected factors across the transportation network, according to the city's Reimagined Vision Zero Action Plan. In a separate report on automated speed enforcement, the city said a camera program reduced speeding violations on one corridor by 95 percent, with pedestrian-involved crashes falling 50 percent after the cameras went in.
Beyond enforcement technology, other proposed fixes have circulated among local advocates. The Philadelphia Citizen has floated measures such as speed cameras, slow zones, speed bumps, bike lanes, congestion pricing and turn calming as tools that could improve traffic safety citywide, according to a search snippet from that outlet.
No additional information about charges, an ongoing investigation, or the woman's identity has been released at this time.
