'Die-in' at City Hall calls for safer streets across L.A.

Protesters mark 290 traffic deaths and say more needs to be done to curb dangerous driving, improve roads for pedestrians and cyclists

- BY DEBORAH VANKIN

Photographs by GENARO MOLINA Los Angeles Times ALEX RAMIREZ, left, daughter Theo, and Reanne Estrada at the protest. Yellow roses honor the victims.

On Saturday morning a day after hundreds gathered in downtown Los Angeles to protest recent nationwide immigration enforcement another protest gained momentum.

Even if almost everyone in attendance lay on the ground stock-still.

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 "die-in" demonstration. The event was partly in remembrance of the 290 individuals who, according to the LAPD's 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.

LILY TRUJILLO talks about her daughter Valentina D'Alessandro, who was killed in a car crash.

"We're 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 fatalities by 2025," said SAFE founder and Executive Director Damian Kevitt, who lost his right leg in a violent traffic incident in 2013.

"Not manage or reduce [them] but eliminate traffic fatalities. We are a decade later and we are at 290 traffic fatalities. It's a 26% increase in traffic fatalities since the start of Vision Zero." 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.