MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee County has released a new dashboard detailing the location, time and severity of car crashes.
Data shows that fatal crashes disproportionately affect people of color. After receiving questions from viewers asking why there is a connection between these fatalities and racing, we dug deeper into the issue to answer your questions.
Junius Meriwether is no stranger to reckless driving and crashes in Milwaukee. Stark's property at No. 76 has been damaged 17 times. One time, when his wife was inside her house, she was almost beaten.
“My wife was sitting in her bedroom one night when a car crashed into her neighbor's living room. She was sitting about two feet away from where the car had gone,” Meriwether said. said. “It was really scary.”
A retired Vietnam veteran says his home feels more like a battlefield. He has seen countless people seriously injured and one man die.
“I did the best CPR I could,” Meriwether said. “It's been tough. We've seen so many accidents here. We've done so many CPRs here. Until her wife convinced us we had to go. ”
Meriwether and his wife decided to buy another home rather than be included in the statistics, but a new report from Milwaukee County reveals even more reason for concern. It found that black people were more likely to be injured or killed in crashes in Milwaukee County. Additionally, 56% of those killed in crashes were black, even though they make up only 26% of the county's population.
After reporting these statistics, I had more questions. After reading your emails and social media posts, I was asked the following questions:
“I didn't understand how the disparities mentioned led to unsafe roads for people of color.”
Beth Osborne runs Transportation for America, a national campaign for transportation reform that is part of Smart Growth for America. She said multi-lane roads and highways like Junius' 76th Street near her home often end up in minority communities. These highways are often responsible for these statistics.
“Many of them were placed in low-income neighborhoods in black and brown neighborhoods because real estate was cheap, accessible, or stigmatized,” Osborn said. “In these undesirable corridors, low-cost housing is are often developed.”
You also asked, “Where are these accidents happening? Is it a matter of location or a matter of race?”
The majority of these fatal crashes occur on the north side, according to data from the Milwaukee County Coroner's Office.
“In most communities with low-income residents, roads are designed so that people from outside the community can go through their community to get to another community. For white people, black neighborhoods are often a hindrance,” Osborn said. “It doesn't matter whether it's intended to create a risk or not. The design and approach consistently creates a risk that affects some groups more than others, and it doesn't have to be a one-size-fits-all checklist.” It doesn’t matter if you keep doing it in your approach, it’s racist.”
“I don't think this is a black or white issue at all. I think it's a city-wide issue,” Meriwether said.
He still owns the house, but he and his wife moved out of town in 2021 after a car crashed into the front of the house, making it structurally unsafe to live in. The house is in the final stages of restoration. But then he added these rocks to prevent people who had an accident on his 76th Street from reaching his yard.