[dropcap size=big]A[/dropcap] ten-year-old boy in Torrance is dead after a pickup driver swerved to avoid hitting a dog. A woman standing at a bus stop in North Hollywood died after a car that ran a red light and hit two other vehicles landed on top of her. And in Westlake, a construction worker was hit while crossing Bonnie Brae to a street vendor before heading to work. The driver who killed him fled.
These three deaths on the streets of L.A. occurred between 6am and 9pm on Tuesday, March 26 — one day.
The dizzying string of pedestrian killings is sounding alarms in the safer-streets community. Los Angeles has a Vision Zero plan, aimed at eliminating traffic deaths across the city’s 6,500 miles of streets and 7,200 miles of sidewalks.
But transit reform activists say the city and other government agencies are responding too slow to stem the deaths of people on the streets. Within L.A. city limits, 127 pedestrians and 21 cyclists were killed in 2018, according to preliminary data first cited by U.S. News. Overall traffic deaths (including vehicle collisions) dropped slightly from 2017 but had spiked overall in 2016, Curbed LA reported.
Vision Zero, activists say, is not reaching its goals.