Police are searching for the driver who critically injured a man in a hit-and-run crash in North Philadelphia early Saturday morning.
According to police, the incident happened around 2:47 a.m. on the 900 block of Watts St.
Police said a driver in a white SUV -- possibly a Jeep -- hit a 25-year-old man who was attempting to cross the street and then fled the scene southbound on Watts Street towards Parrish Street at a high rate of speed.
The man was taken to the hospital with critical injuries, including a skull fracture and internal bleeding, according to police.
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Anyone with information about this incident or the driver's identity is urged to contact the Crash Investigation Division at 215-685-3180 or call/text the police department's tipline at 215-686-TIPS (8477).
This incident comes just 24 hours after two separate hit-and-run crashes left two people dead Friday morning.
One deadly hit-and-run took place around 1:20 a.m. along the 200 block of North 63rd Street, according to police.
The driver -- possibly in a white SUV -- was going northbound "at a high rate of speed" when they struck a 67-year-old man, police said.
Medics rushed the man to a nearby hospital, where he died about two hours later, investigators said.
In another incident, police said a woman was launched more than 200 feet out of her shoes as the driver who struck her along a Northeast Philadelphia street just kept going.
Medics and police officers rushed to the 4800 block of Levick Street just before 2:30 a.m. on Friday to find the woman with trauma throughout her body on the street, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said. Medics pronounced her dead a short time later.
At least 45 pedestrians have died so far this year in the city, according to public police information. More than half of those have been hit-and-runs.
It's increasingly more common for people to flee the scene.
Before the COVID pandemic, hit-and-runs only accounted for one out of every four pedestrian-involved deadly crashes. Both last year and now this year, it is up to one out of every two.
Police have only made three arrests in pedestrian-related fatalities this year. Since 2019, police have only made arrests in about 11% of these crashes.
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