Police begin coordinated crackdown on aggressive driving across Philadelphia region

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Pennsylvania State Police teamed up with 80 municipalities in the Philadelphia region to go after aggressive driving.

The crackdown started on Monday and will run through April 20. Police will look for people speeding, tailgating, running red lights and other dangerous driving.

"I was just rear-ended a couple of months ago because I paused for a yield sign," said Nancy Smith.

Aggressive driving is estimated to have caused 50% of the crashes across the county last year. Preliminary data from PennDOT shows there were 1,297 aggressive driving crashes in our 5-county area in 2023, resulting in 39 fatalities and 99 severe injuries.

"If you have driven any highway you have likely seen someone driving recklessly or aggressively," said Krys Johnson with PennDOT.

She said the campaign will use traffic enforcement zones, saturation patrols, speed enforcement details, corridor enforcement work and multi-jurisdictional patrol strategies to identify and cite aggressive drivers.

The idea is to reduce the number of crashes and injuries.

"You will definitely see more enforcement as part of this program," said Johnson.