A USC study found the most dangerous intersection in the city is in South Los Angeles at S. Figueroa Street and Slauson Avenue.
Using data from the Los Angeles Police Department, the university’s Crosstown LA found that there have been 66 serious crashes, including 17 felony hit-and-runs with seven pedestrians hit while they were on the sidewalk.
“Just speeding past me and my parents,” resident Celeste Aragon said. “These people are crazy and it almost ends up in crashes … Around here, it’s dangerous.”
Kevitt, the executive director of Streets Are For Everyone, called the trends concerning as the LAPD invests its resources into more serious crimes.
“People see that, especially people that want to violate the law, want to drive dangerously,” Kevitt said. “They know they’re not going to get caught.”
While LAPD’s strategy has worked to tamp down serious crimes, traffic fatalities and crashes in the city have increased.
“For the first time in quite a while, Los Angeles has had more traffic fatalities than homicides,” advocate Damian Kevitt said.
Advocates urged officials to invest in ways to bolster safety.
“Some of that can be done by engineering, where you can actually re-engineer a road so that it is safer,” Kevitt said.
While implementing the changes would cost a good amount of money, Kevitt suggested that the city could use the funds allocated for speed cameras in 2023 that were never installed.
