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From time to time, local authorities implement regulations or changes to make streets safer for pedestrians and bikes. There’s the Slow Streets program, two-way bike lanes, new crosswalk signals and more.
But as KPCC / LAist transport reporter Ryan Fonseca found out while investigating the death of four-year-old Alessa Fajardo, who was fatally struck by a driver as she drove through a Koreatown intersection on the way to kindergarten, changes are not carried out quickly enough to avoid tragedy.
Ryan told me about who is really at fault in cases like this and what is being done – or not done – to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
In your article you talk about the fact that there were over 100 pedestrian and cyclist deaths the year Alessa was killed. How did you decide to center the story on the Fajardo family?
I remember seeing the latest news and headlines on Twitter in October 2019 that a little girl was hit by a driver and killed on her way to school with her mom. She was literally a few feet from her school, crossing as she normally did in the morning, and was killed.
I wasn’t the only one in the newsroom feeling sorry for this news, and it just got me thinking about how the local news was covering it. Immediately, the term used to describe it was “tragic accident”. The police said it and the journalists repeated it. And so it stood out as kind of a punchy word to use.
I have heard you say how misleading to use the word “accident” to describe such deaths. Can you say more?
I think we treat “accident” as a neutral term because we’ve been using it for so long. But “accident” implies that there is no reason for it to happen; as if it is this inevitable tragedy that could not have been avoided, and that no one is really responsible or responsible for it.
When you take a closer look, however, and see that a huge percentage of vehicle collisions are the result of reckless drivers exceeding the speed limit, people get distracted, make dangerous turns, don’t give in to pedestrians. , do not follow the rules of the road, the word “accident” seems all the more irresponsible.
The other aspect is that Los Angeles officials have long known where the deadliest places in town are to be pedestrianized, by that I mean the places where drivers are most likely to kill people who are not. not by car. The city has a plan in place that is supposed to tackle the high death rate, called the Vision Zero program. But we’ve been in this program for over five years, and road fatalities have actually increased.
From the city’s perspective, it wasn’t just a freak accident or a random event. Taken together, calling what happened to Alessa Fajardo an “accident” seems an injustice.
What tools and solutions could the city implement to make the road safer, whether it is not implemented or whether it is slow to deploy?
This ranges from relatively cheap and easy-to-do actions like re-crossing crosswalks and putting left turn arrows, to bigger changes like redesigning roads to include protected cycle lanes.
There’s something called a Pedestrian Headstart, which gives pedestrians a three to seven second head start in a crosswalk before cars can start moving. It was on file for a possible improvement to the crosswalk where Alessa was killed, but still has not been funded.
It gnaws at me a bit, because I’m just thinking if that had been in place, Alessa and her mother, Erica, would have, in theory, spent several more seconds at the intersection. And they could have been out of danger.
How are the Fajardo family doing these days?
I first met them a few months after this happened so it was very difficult for them. Alessa’s toys and all her belongings were still in the apartment. They showed me her lunch box that she was carrying when she was killed.
They are looking for a sense of change, to make their neighborhood safer for the next little child. They have a younger daughter, Clarissa, and they made it a point to do with her all the things they did with Alessa, to try to make her memory come alive that way.
What else you should know today
Before you go… Here’s what to do this week
Catch (practically) an unlimited number of films and talks, including one with Sofia Loren. Hear from African-American poets, including Los Angeles’ own opening star Amanda Gorman. Get sweet at a chocolate festival. Learn about the Saturday Night Live audition process. Try your hand at sous vide cooking. Head to Sundance without having to board a plane to Park City. And more.
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