On Saturday morning – a day after hundreds gathered in downtown Los Angeles to protest the latest enforcement across the country – another demonstration gained momentum.
Even though almost everyone there was lying on the floor.
Traffic safety advocates and others, led by the group Streets Are for Everyone (SAFE), gathered on the steps of the City of Los Angeles for a “sameness” protest. The event was part of a memorial to the 290 people, according to the LAPD’s current count, who died last year in Los Angeles traffic accidents. And in part it was a rallying cry for safer streets throughout the city.
“We are 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 – to achieve zero traffic accidents by 2025,” said SAFE founder and director Damian Kevitt, who lost his right leg in a violent traffic accident in 2013. [them] but the killing of people on the road has been stopped. It’s ten years later and we’re at 290 streets. … Road accidents have increased by 26% since Vision Zero began.”
Kevitt was bicycling in Griffith Park with his wife in 2013 when he was hit by a car, pinned under it and dragged a quarter mile along the 5 Freeway. The driver was not found. Kevitt not only survived but vowed to dedicate his life to road safety advocacy, founding SAFE in 2015. At the time, Eric Garcetti was the mayor of LA, a position he held until the end of 2022.
Lili Trujillo Puckett, founder of the youth road safety organization Street Racing Kills, held a photo Saturday of daughter Valentina D’Alessandro, who died at age 16 when a driver who was giving her a ride home hit her while she was racing.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
As SAFE volunteers prepared for a protest Saturday around 8:30 a.m., a sign reading “People are dying, City Hall is failing” hung from the building’s steps. Yellow flowers commemorating those who died as a result of road violence lined the steps below.
Kevitt said he expects about 100 people to attend, although SAFE was aiming for 290. “One in every person killed by 2025,” he said.
“The city has the tools, it’s just not using them,” Kevitt told The Times. “In 2024, voters approved the HLA measure by a two-thirds margin. It requires the city to follow through on its transit plan … to make streets safer for bicyclists, for pedestrians, for better transportation.” He also cited state measure AB 645, which in 2023 authorized a speed camera pilot program in several California cities, including Los Angeles, as “a tool the city can use – speed safety programs.”
City Council member Hugo Soto-Martínez was there to support the protesters.
“If we have a city where more people die from street violence than homicides, and that rate is ignored, yes, we may be doing more,” he said in an interview. “These are completely avoidable things. But unfortunately, we don’t put enough funding into making our roads safer.”
Bass’s office said in a statement that the mayor, who took office in January 2023, “has made road safety a priority by accelerating the implementation of hundreds of speed humps, signs and intersection treatments that help ensure drivers slow and control near schools. Vision Zero began in 2015 and requires extensive cooperation across departments.”
The office pointed to Bass’s October 2024 order to fix road repairs, clean parks and infrastructure and improve city services ahead of the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in LA.
A person dressed as the Grim Reaper joins a protest Saturday at Los Angeles City Hall.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Dozens of participants — including a 6-foot-6 SAFE volunteer dressed as the Grim Reaper and holding a scythe that reads “kill speed” — then gather on the steps for a group photo. They hold pictures of victims of street violence, who are now dead, and put their pictures on their chests or up in the sky. “Felipe Infante-Avalos: 15 years. Killed walking to school,” read another. “Trina Newman, passed away getting into her car,” read another.
Protest signs echoed the call for safer roads: “Put on the brakes, not the people,” said another. “Bicycles are people’s vehicles, share the road,” said another.
Lisa Lundie, president of Los Angeles Critical Mass, a bicycling and advocacy community organization, echoed that sentiment.
“Cyclists have the right of way,” he said. “And many people who drive cars don’t feel that way. They run you down the street, yell at you, even hit you in the back. The city needs to build protective bike lanes.”
“And intersections,” added Jonathan Hale, founder of People’s Vision Zero, which promotes safer streets. In December, he said he was painting a legal “but unmarked” street in Westwood – for safety reasons but also as an act of protest – and was handcuffed by police who served him with a warrant for vandalism. The city ultimately did not pursue charges.
“But whoever makes the presence of pedestrians more visible makes it safer,” he said. “We say ‘We’re here!'”
A photo of Zachary Cruz is held by his grandmother, Beverly Shelton, during a protest on Saturday in downtown LA. The boy was killed on the streets of Berkeley in 2009.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Kevitt then led the rally with the crowd: “Walking, biking, it’s our right. We won’t give up this fight!” they sang.
After that, almost everyone who took part in the protest lay down on the steps of City Hall, many with their eyes closed and holding their signs to their chests, for 290 seconds. There was silence.
In the comments that followed, Alex Ramirez, executive director of the nonprofit organization representing pedestrians Los Angeles Walks, shared his fears for his children.
“We are living in scary times right now. Every day I wake up and I am not sure if my children will be safe on the streets,” she said. “For many reasons. But ‘because our roads are poorly designed’ should not be one of them.”
In a very sad moment, Beverly Shelton – or “Grandma Beverly,” as she prefers – spoke tearfully about her grandson, Zachary Michael Cruz, who was killed on the streets of Berkeley 17 years ago. That prompted her to co-found the Southern California Families for Safe Streets organization.
“If I put as many roses here as people who have died since Zachary, this will all be yellow,” he said, pointing to the steps of City Hall and adding: “This won’t stop until we stop it, it won’t stop until we force it!” Then he left and wiped the tears from his face.
Kevitt had one comment for The Times: “Don’t use the word traffic ‘danger’ when you write about this,” he said.
“In the field of road safety, ‘crash’ or ‘collision,'” he said. “‘Danger’ means irresponsibility. ‘Oops.’ But if you’re driving drunk or distracted, that’s a decision. If you hit and kill or seriously injure someone, it’s not ‘oops.’ We are trying to say: This is avoidable.”
Times staff writer Melody Petersen contributed to this report.
