{"id":540628,"date":"2026-01-25T00:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T00:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/540628\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T00:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T00:40:13","slug":"dozens-die-downtown-to-protest-290-traffic-deaths-in-l-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/540628\/","title":{"rendered":"Dozens ‘die’ downtown to protest 290 traffic deaths in L.A."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Saturday morning \u2014 a day after hundreds gathered in downtown Los Angeles<\/a> to protest recent nationwide immigration enforcement \u2014 another protest gained momentum. <\/p>\n

Even if almost everyone in attendance lay on the ground stock still.<\/p>\n

Road safety advocates and others, led by the group Streets Are for Everyone (SAFE), gathered on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall for a \u201cdie-in\u201d demonstration. The event was partly in remembrance of the 290 individuals who, according to the LAPD\u2019s current tally, died last calendar year in traffic incidents in Los Angeles. And it was partly a vociferous call for safer streets throughout the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re out here today because the city of Los Angeles signed Vision Zero as a directive in August 2015 to prioritize saving lives on our roads \u2014 to achieve zero traffic fatalities by 2025,\u201d said SAFE founder and executive director Damian Kevitt, who lost his right leg in a violent traffic incident in 2013. \u201cNot manage or reduce [them] but eliminate traffic fatalities. We are a decade later and we are at 290 traffic fatalities. … It\u2019s a 26% increase in traffic fatalities since the start of Vision Zero.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevitt had been bicycling in Griffith Park with his wife in 2013 when he was hit by a car, pinned underneath it and dragged a quarter mile onto and along the 5 Freeway. The driver was never found. Kevitt not only survived but vowed to dedicate his life to road safety advocacy, founding SAFE in 2015. At that time, Eric Garcetti was mayor of L.A., a position he held until the end of 2022.<\/p>\n

\"a <\/p>\n

Lili Trujillo Puckett, founder of the youth traffic safety organization Street Racing Kills, holds a photo Saturday of daughter Valentina D\u2019Alessandro, who was killed at 16 when a driver who was giving her a ride home crashed while street racing.<\/p>\n

(Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

As SAFE volunteers set up for the demonstration Saturday around 8:30 a.m., a sign reading \u201cPeople are dying, City Hall is failing\u201d hung atop the steps of the building. Yellow roses commemorating those who have lost their lives to traffic violence blanketed the bottom steps.<\/p>\n

Kevitt said he expected about 100 people to arrive, though SAFE was aiming for 290. \u201cOne for each person killed in 2025,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city has tools, it\u2019s just not using them,\u201d Kevitt told The Times. \u201cIn 2024, voters approved measure HLA<\/a> by a two-thirds margin. It requires the city must follow its own mobility plan \u2026 to make roads safer for cyclists, for pedestrians, for better transit.\u201d He also cited state measure AB 645, which in 2023 authorized a pilot program for speed cameras in a handful of California cities including Los Angeles, as \u201ca tool the city could be implementing \u2014 it\u2019s speed safety systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Mart\u00ednez was on hand to support the demonstrators.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we have a city where more people die of traffic violence than homicides, and it doesn\u2019t get that level of attention, yes, absolutely we could be doing more,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cThese are things that are absolutely preventable. But unfortunately, we don\u2019t put enough funding into making our streets safer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bass\u2019 office said in a statement that the mayor, who took office in January 2023, \u201chas made street safety a priority by accelerating the implementation of hundreds of new speed humps, signage and intersection treatments which help ensure drivers are traveling slowly and with control near schools. Vision Zero started in 2015 and requires intensive coordination across departments.\u201d <\/p>\n

The office pointed to Bass\u2019 October 2024 executive directive<\/a> to facilitate street repairs, clean parks and infrastructure and city services enhancements ahead of the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympic Games in L.A.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A person dressed as the Grim Reaper joins in a protest Saturday at Los Angeles City Hall.<\/p>\n

(Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Dozens of participants \u2014 including a 6-foot-6 SAFE volunteer dressed as the Grim Reaper and carrying a scythe reading \u201cspeed kills\u201d \u2014 then gathered on the steps for a group photo. They clutched photos of traffic violence victims, now deceased, holding their images to their chests or up to the sky. \u201cFelipe Infante-Avalos: 15 years old. Killed walking to school,\u201d one read. \u201cTrina Newman, killed getting into her car,\u201d read another.<\/p>\n

Protest signs punctuated the cries for safer streets: \u201cHit your brakes, not people,\u201d one said. \u201cBikes are traffic, share the road,\u201d said another.<\/p>\n

Lisa Lundie, president of Los Angeles Critical Mass, a community bike ride and cycling advocacy organization, echoed that sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cCyclists have a right to the road,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd a lot of people who drive cars don\u2019t feel that way. They run you off the road, curse at you, even bump you from behind. The city needs to make more protective bike lanes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd crosswalks,\u201d added Jonathan Hale, founder of the People\u2019s Vision Zero, which advocates for safer streets. In December, he said, he was painting a legal \u201cbut unmarked\u201d crosswalk in Westwood \u2014 for safety reasons but also as an act of protest \u2014 and was handcuffed by police who issued him a vandalism citation<\/a>. The city ultimately didn\u2019t pursue charges. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut anyone making the presence of pedestrians more obvious makes it safer,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re saying \u2018We\u2019re here!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An <\/p>\n

Zachary Cruz\u2019s photo is held by his grandmother, Beverly Shelton, during a protest Saturday in downtown L.A. The boy was killed in a Berkeley crosswalk in 2009.<\/p>\n

(Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Kevitt then led a call-and-response with the crowd: \u201cWalking, biking, is our right. We will not give up the fight!\u201d they chanted.<\/p>\n

Then nearly every protest participant lay down on the steps of City Hall, many with eyes shut and clutching their signs to their chests, for 290 seconds. The silence was stifling.<\/p>\n

In speeches afterward, Alex Ramirez, executive director of pedestrian advocacy nonprofit Los Angeles Walks, shared her fears for her children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are living in scary times right now. Every day I wake up and I\u2019m not sure if my kids are going to be safe on the streets,\u201d she said. \u201cFor multiple reasons. But \u2018because our streets are not designed well\u2019 should not be one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a particularly poignant moment, Beverly Shelton \u2014 or \u201cGrandma Beverly,\u201d as she prefers\u2014 spoke teary-eyed about her grandson, Zachary Michael Cruz, who was killed in a Berkeley crosswalk 17 years ago. That prompted her to co-found the organization Southern California Families for Safe Streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I put as many roses here as people who died since Zachary, this would all be yellow,\u201d she said, gesturing to the City Hall steps and adding: \u201cThis doesn\u2019t stop until we stop it, it\u2019s not gonna stop until we demand it!\u201d Then she stepped away, wiping tears from her face.<\/p>\n

Kevitt had one parting comment for The Times: \u201cDon\u2019t use the word traffic \u2018accident\u2019 when writing about this,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the road safety arena, it\u2019s \u2018crash\u2019 or \u2018collision,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201c\u2018Accident\u2019 implies non-responsibility. It\u2019s just an \u2018oops.\u2019 But when you\u2019re driving drunk or distracted, that\u2019s a choice. If you hit and kill or severely injure someone, it\u2019s not an \u2018oops.\u2019 We\u2019re trying to say: This is preventable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Times staff writer Melody Petersen contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday morning \u2014 a day after hundreds gathered in downtown Los Angeles to protest recent nationwide immigration…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":540629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2451,41195,238606,142769,2961,224,2444,5337,1812,3546,1809,8150,88036,42156,625,136919,238607,60152],"class_list":{"0":"post-540628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-city","11":"tag-crosswalk","12":"tag-kevitt","13":"tag-l-a-city-hall","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-los-angeles-times","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-office","19":"tag-people","20":"tag-protest","21":"tag-road","22":"tag-safe","23":"tag-step","24":"tag-street","25":"tag-traffic-fatality","26":"tag-traffic-violence","27":"tag-vision-zero"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115952957966718490","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}