“We have the legislative tools. It’s time to act! It was the cry of dozens of advocates for safer streets and highways in the city and county of Los Angeles, where 746 lives were lost in 2023 alone.
The celebration of World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, a global event celebrated every third Sunday in November, took place at Gloria Molina Grand Park.
That day was designated by the United Nations (UN), where accident survivors, grieving families, advocates and representatives of public agencies remember the dead and injured, urging specific changes that save lives at the global level. local, state and federal to reduce road violence.
Damian Levitt, executive director of Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE), stated that, according to the latest data from the LAPD, for the third consecutive year there have been more than 300 traffic deaths in the city of Los Angeles.
“While the current number of deaths is 8% lower compared to the same period in 2022, it is predicted that [las cifras finales en 2024] will reach 309 traffic deaths, continuing the dizzying trend of 14 years in Los Angeles,” said Levitt.
In 2023, Damian Levitt was brutally hit by a car near Griffith Park. As a result of the accident, Levitt lost a leg and now uses a prosthesis so he can walk and cycle.
“We demand safer roads, sensible choices, ways to slow drivers down to prevent drunk and drug driving,” Levitt said.
Demands for action also include controlling distracted driving and making roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists, and all road users.
“There are too many deaths, and any loss of one life is too many,” the activist said. “The situation in the county is bad, but in the city of Los Angeles it is especially bad, because last year there were 336 deaths. “That is the maximum amount in 40 years,” he added.
“Accustomed to deaths”
Present at the meeting of pedestrian and cyclist advocacy leaders, Councilman Hugo Soto Martínez (District 13) stated that he believes that, in the city of Los Angeles, people have become too comfortable with the loss of people due to the road violence.
“Last year, we lost more people to traffic violence than to homicides. And that is simply unacceptable,” the local government official said.
Soto-Martínez criticized the fact that for decades a city has been built around cars instead of people, “people who walk, ride a bike or take the bus.”
“But let me tell you one thing: cars did not choose me,” external. “I was elected by people who cared deeply about this issue [de la seguridad vial].
In fact, he reported that, thanks to activism in the district he represents, 80% of voters supported the HLA measure, and subsequently the first 2.1 miles of protected bike lanes were created, connecting Los Feliz with Thai Town and Hollywood.
Lack of action
On October 13, 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 645 into law, allowing the cities of Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, Glendale and Long Beach, and the city and county of San Francisco to establish a pilot program of the speed security system through cameras.
The law has been authorized until January 1, 2032 on the basis that, in San Francisco and the state of California, speed is the number one cause of serious and fatal traffic accidents.
In fact, before its passage five years earlier, more than 1,000 Californians had died each year in speeding-related traffic accidents.
In March of this year, Los Angeles voters approved the HLA measure, aimed at building more bus and bike lanes, as well as wider sidewalks.
The ballot initiative received 63% of votes cast and requires the city to install street improvements outlined in its 2035 Mobility Plan when making road repairs.
Another tool available is the global Vision Zero initiative, which seeks to eliminate deaths and serious injuries in traffic accidents.
In Los Angeles, the Vision Zero initiative is a citywide effort to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
This initiative in Los Angeles is led by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) and focuses on: protecting the most vulnerable users such as children, the elderly, pedestrians and cyclists; collect traffic accident data to inform transportation safety planning and policies; prioritize equity and community engagement and establish a timeline to achieve zero traffic deaths and serious injuries.
He mourns the death of his cousin
Natalie Castillo, Ana Carrillo Rodríguez’s cousin, remembers through tears the death of her best friend on May 12.
“She was getting ready to visit her mom in San Diego that night,” Natalie recalled. “It was Mother’s Day.”
Ana Carrillo Rodríguez had left home to go buy food for her dog. She was walking with her pet in Huntington Park, when she suddenly lost control of the little animal, which had run into other dogs.
In the residential area where Ana lived – on Hope Street and California Avenue – the motorist who hit the young woman fled at more than 70 miles per hour.
And, although the scene of the fatal hit-and-run was captured on a store’s surveillance camera, the images could not capture the license plate number of the car or the identity of the driver.
“My cousin was full of life; I work as a stagehand in the entertainment and concert industry,” said Natalie Castillo. “We live together. She traveled from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and even Arizona. “He loved walking from one place to another.”
15 tomourning for a grandmother
It’s been 15 years since February 27, 2009 when Zachary Michael Cruz was hit by a two-and-a-half-ton welding truck, and his grandmother…is still grieving.
“The driver couldn’t stop and he was also blind in one eye, which later explained why he didn’t see everyone in the crosswalk,” says Beverly Shelton, the grandmother of the five-year-old boy, who would be 20 now if was alive
“Zachary died instantly.” Remember grandma. “There were three other children who were witnesses and a teacher.”
The tragedy occurred in Berkeley, very close to another children’s school, located off the university campus.
Zachary Michael was heading to his after-school program.
“They took him off the bus, where they shouldn’t have taken him off,” Mrs. Shelton says. “And then the teacher and three other children came down.”
Together they crossed the street and tried to stop. The teacher pushed everyone back when she saw the truck, but Zachary was hit.
“That changed my life, my family’s life forever,” says the little boy’s grandmother. “The family and community is devastated.”
The family never recovered, Beverly Shelton said. “No, you never fully recover, because on every holiday there is an empty chair, at every wedding, at every funeral, at every special occasion. That person should be there and never will be.”
Zachary was the son of Frank and Jodie Cruz, founders of the Zachary Michael Cruz Foundation, which is dedicated to providing education and awareness about pedestrian safety in the San Francisco Bay Area and other regions.