LAist: 2021 was the deadliest year for LA crashes in nearly 20 years. How did it get so bad?

In 2021, Los Angeles had a 22% increase in traffic deaths and the highest death toll from traffic fatalities in the past two decades. Half of those killed were not in vehicles and were either pedestrians or bicyclists. Los Angeles Department of Transportation’s spokesperson, Colin Sweeney, says that dramatic increases in speeding and reckless driving are the main reasons for these troubling rises. The county’s plan on redesigning streets to make it safer for drivers and pedestrians has been slow and underfunded. The majority of fatal and severe-injury collisions have occurred in South Los Angeles and the Fernando Valley making up over 68% of the traffic deaths in Los Angeles in 2021. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation Vision Zero project has a goal to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. Read the full article on LAist here.