MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee County released a new dashboard to detail the location, time, and severity of motor vehicle crashes.
The data shows fatal crashes are disproportionately affecting people of color. After viewers asked why there was a link between these fatal crashes and race, we dug deeper into the issue to answer your questions.
Junious Merriweather is no stranger to reckless driving and crashes in Milwaukee. His property at 76th and Stark has been hit 17 times. One time, his wife was almost hit while inside the house.
“My wife was sitting in the bedroom one night and a car ran straight through there and into my neighbor’s living room and my wife was sitting like two feet from where the car went,” said Merriweather. “It was really scary.”
The retired Vietnam Vet says his home feels more like a war zone. He has seen countless people get seriously hurt and one man die.
“I did all the CPR that I could do,” said Merriweather. “It has been rough. I have seen so many accidents here. We have done so many CPR here. Until my wife convinced me that we needed to go.”
Merriweather and his wife decided to buy another home rather than become a statistic and a new report from Milwaukee County reveals even more reason for concern. It finds Black people are more likely to be hurt or killed in crashes in Milwaukee County. And 56% of those killed in crashes are Black despite only making up 26% of the county's population.
After I reported these statistics, you had more questions. We read your emails and posts on social media, and one asked:
"I didn't follow how the disparities that were mentioned are causing the roads to be deadlier 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 says multiple-lane or high-speed roadways like 76th Street near Junious' home often end up in minority communities. Those higher speeds roads are often the reason for these statistics.
"Many of them were placed in low income in black and brown communities because the property was cheap and easy to acquire or easier to condemn, and many times lower cost housing is developed in these undesirable corridors,” said Osborne.
You also asked: "Where are these accidents taking place? Is it a question of location or race?"
Data from the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's office shows a majority of these deadly crashes are happening on the north side.
“In most communities with lower income people, the roadway is being designed for the benefit of people coming from outside the community going through your community to another community. So you'll often find a Black neighborhood that is in the way of white suburbanites trying to get to a job center,” said Osborne. "It doesn't matter if it is intended to create danger, if a design and approach consistently creates a danger that impacts one group over another, and you keep doing it in a one-size-fits-all approach like a checklist. Then that is a racist behavior."
"I don't think it is a Black, white thing at all. I think it is a problem for the whole city,” said Merriweather.
He still owns this house but he and his wife moved out of the city after a car drove into the front of their home in 2021 making it structurally unsafe to live in. The house is in the final stages of repair. But he has since added these boulders to keep people who crash on 76th Street from ending up in his yard.
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
