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 laid 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.
“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.
As SAFE volunteers set up for the demonstration Saturday around 8:30 a.m., a sign reading “People are dying, City Hall is failing” hung atop the steps of the building. Yellow roses commemorating those who have lost their lives to traffic violence blanketed the bottom steps.
Kevitt said he expected about 100 people to arrive, though SAFE was aiming for 290. “One for each person killed in 2025,” he said.
“The city has tools, it’s just not using them,” Kevitt told The Times. “In 2024, voters approved measure HLA by a two-thirds margin. It requires the city must follow its own mobility plan … to make roads safer for cyclists, for pedestrians, for better transit.” 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 “a tool the city could be implementing — it’s speed safety systems.”
City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez was on hand to support the demonstrators.
“When we have a city where more people die of traffic violence than homicides, and it doesn’t get that level of attention, yes, absolutely we could be doing more,” he said in an interview. “These are things that are absolutely preventable. But unfortunately, we don’t put enough funding into making our streets safer.”
Bass’ office said in a statement that the mayor, who took office in January 2023, “has 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.”
The office pointed to Bass’ October 2024 executive directive to facilitate street repairs, clean parks and infrastructure and city services enhancements ahead of the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympic Games in L.A.
Dozens of participants — including a 6-foot-6 SAFE volunteer dressed as the Grim Reaper and carrying a scythe reading “speed kills” — 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. “Felipe Infante-Avalos: 15 years old. Killed walking to school,” one read. “Trina Newman, killed getting into her car,” read another.
Protest signs punctuated the cries for safer streets: “Hit your brakes, not people,” one said. “Bikes are traffic, share the road,” said another.
Lisa Lundie, president of Los Angeles Critical Mass, a community bike ride and cycling advocacy organization, echoed that sentiment.
“Cyclists have a right to the road,” she said. “And a lot of people who drive cars don’t 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.”
“And crosswalks,” added Jonathan Hale, founder of the People’s Vision Zero, which advocates for safer streets. In December, he said, he was painting a legal “but unmarked” crosswalk in Westwood — for safety reasons but also as an act of protest — and was handcuffed by police who issued him a vandalism citation. The city ultimately didn’t pursue charges.
“But anyone making the presence of pedestrians more obvious makes it safer,” he said. “We’re saying ‘We’re here!’”
Kevitt then led a call and response with the crowd: “Walking, biking, is our right. We will not give up the fight!” they chanted.
Then nearly every protest participant laid 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.
In speeches afterward, Alex Ramirez, executive director of pedestrian advocacy nonprofit Los Angeles Walks, shared her fears for her children.
“We are living in scary times right now. Every day I wake up and I’m not sure if my kids are going to be safe on the streets,” she said. “For multiple reasons. But ‘because our streets are not designed well’ should not be one of them.”
In a particularly poignant moment, Beverly Shelton — or “Grandma Beverly,” as she prefers— 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.
“If I put as many roses here as people who died since Zachary, this would all be yellow,” she said, gesturing to the City Hall steps and adding, “This doesn’t stop until we stop it, it’s not gonna stop until we demand it!” Then she stepped away, wiping tears from her face.
Kevitt had one parting comment for The Times: “Don’t use the word traffic ‘accident’ when writing about this,” he said.
“In the road safety arena, it’s ‘crash’ or ‘collision,’” he said. “‘Accident’ implies non-responsibility. It’s just an ‘oops.’ But when you’re driving drunk or distracted, that’s a choice. If you hit and kill or severely injure someone, it’s not an ‘oops.’ We’re trying to say: This is preventable.”
Times staff writer Melody Petersen contributed to this report.
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