One man and a dog are dead following an early-morning high-speed car crash Friday in West Philadelphia.
The crash happened just after 4 a.m. at 48th and Walnut Streets, when a man driving a black Dodge Durango at a high speed ran a red light, striking a gray 2017 Chevrolet Malibu, police said. The impact caused the Malibu to hit four unoccupied parked cars, one of which landed on the steps of a nearby home.
Emergency responders pronounced the driver of the Malibu, who has not yet been publicly identified, dead at the scene at 4:18 a.m. A dog riding inside the Malibu was also killed in the crash.
The driver of the Durango, a 25-year-old man, as well as two passengers — 22-year-old man and a 23-year-old man — suffered minor injuries. All three men, whom police did not identify publicly, were taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and have since been released, Capt. Stephen Clark, commanding officer of the Philadelphia Police Department’s Crash Investigation Division, said at a Friday news conference.
No arrests have been made in connection with the crash, though the investigation remains ongoing. The Durango had not been reported stolen as of Friday afternoon, Clark said, and it was not immediately clear how fast the vehicle may have been traveling at the time of the crash.
Investigators are working to compile surveillance video from the area to aid in determining the causes of the crash.
“Once we get video, we’re able to do speed analysis [and] go out there personally a recreate that scene,” Clark said.
Hours after the crash in West Philadelphia, at about 6:45 a.m. Friday, another fatal crash occurred on the 4300 block of Cottman Avenue in the city’s Holmesburg neighborhood. One man riding a motorcycle was killed in that crash, having been pronounced dead at Jefferson Torresdale Hospital at 7:10 a.m., police said. Additional details on the crash were not immediately available.
Between 2021 and 2024, Philadelphia had roughly 120 fatal car crashes per year, according to PennDot data. Information on the number of fatal car crash in Philadelphia last year was not immediately available Friday.