Data shows drop in crashes over Fourth of July weekend in Pittsburgh area
This Fourth of July weekend saw a return to pre-pandemic travel, but statewide crash data shows numbers are lower than last year. The same goes for the Pittsburgh area.
The total number of crashes and fatal collisions were down from 2021, giving state troopers an extra reason to celebrate.
Trooper Rocco Gagliardi said, “That’s a pretty good number thus far,” especially given all of the “people driving around this weekend.”
Gagliardi is part of “Troop B,” which covers Pittsburgh, Washington, Waynesburg, Uniontown and Belle Vernon. His troop dealt with 60 crashes. None of them were fatal.
“That low (amount) of crashes is significantly lower than years prior, but at the same time, traffic is significantly higher than years prior. So that’s a pretty solid weekend,” he said.
There were just four fatalities on Pennsylvania highways this holiday weekend. That’s fewer than half of 2021′s count. All were in the central or eastern parts of the state. Alcohol was not a factor in any but did play a role in 8% of total crashes.
DUI arrests remained consistent, as did speeding citations.
“You know, we take the good; we learn from it. We take the bad; we learn from that, too. We keep going to try to get these numbers as low as we want.”
One number that did jump significantly statewide was child seat citations. They went up by nearly a third. To help combat that, each troop statewide has one day a month where they inspect car seats free of charge. You can find out when those days are by contacting your local barracks.
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