Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, car crashes are the fourth most common cause of premature deaths. Curbed reports that the LA County Department of Public Health rates car crashes ahead of homicides, stroke, and lung cancer. And car crashes are especially dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists. Combined, they accounted for more than sixty percent of the road fatalities in 2019, even though they were involved in only one percent of reported accidents.
This statistic is yet one more in a long series that proves how dangerous the roads are for pedestrians, bicycle riders, and other road users who are not in vehicles. It is important to hold drivers accountable for the serious injuries they cause to other road users. When searching for an “auto accident attorney near me,” be sure to check out the many cases Arash Law has settled for Los Angeles injury victims. Perhaps most frustrating about the Los Angeles traffic accident trends is how much money governments are spending to correct them.
In 2015, Mayor Eric Garcetti joined Project Vision Zero, a worldwide effort to eliminate traffic deaths. This program has been very effective in some parts of the world – especially in European cities. Even New York was able to report decreases in traffic deaths after joining Vision Zero in 2015. Unfortunately, here in Los Angeles, traffic deaths have risen dramatically in the years since officials put the program into place.
Between 2015 and 2018, traffic fatalities in Los Angeles increased a staggering thirty percent. The program may not be a direct cause of this increase, but it is certainly a bad outcome for a program designed to save lives.