LOS ANGELES — As more people work from home and stay off the roads, COVID-19 restrictions are helping make some streets safer. According to the LAPD statistics, total pedestrian-vehicle collisions fell by 70% last year compared to 2019. But that's not true for all of Southern California.

What You Need To Know

  • Pedestrian-vehicle collisions dropped by 70% last year

  • But in South L.A., there was over a 20% increased in traffic fatalities and injuries

  • Streets Are for Everyone is working to reduce these numbers with outreach programs

  • A South L.A. woman who lost two family members to traffic violence is volunteering for the organization

 In South L.A., there was over a 20% increase in traffic fatalities and injuries with over 4,900 hit and run collisions in 2020. To ensure safety for all, Streets Are for Everyone is working to reduce these numbers with new outreach programs specifically targeting South LA. One South L.A. woman lost two family members to traffic violence and wants to do whatever she can to make her community safer.

Bibiana Diaz and her family used to love riding bikes together, but now she prefers to walk. She actually hasn’t ridden a bike since July when tragedy struck her life for a second time.

“I couldn’t believe this was happening again. I felt like my world was crumbling,” said Diaz.

The South L.A. resident lost her father to traffic violence when she was 14 and this year her stepfather was killed by a hit and run driver while coming home from a bike ride with the family, including his two young daughters Carla and Madelyn.

“I watched him die, so this is the kind of pain I wouldn’t wish on anyone, not on my worst enemy, on nobody. I want to prevent that from happening to another little boy or little girl. I want to prevent families from being torn apart,” said Diaz.

She does this by staying strong for her little sisters and by letting her anger, frustration, and sadness to fuel her. She is now a volunteer leading the South Los Angeles chapter of Streets Are for Everyone, an organization fighting for change for pedestrians and cyclists in our city.

“I felt like, OK, but what am I going to do with all these feelings? What am I going to do to make a difference? It doesn’t make sense to wallow away in my sadness, but to be productive. How can I do something for this cause and how can I keep his memory alive?” said Diaz.

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 South L.A. has seen a rise in traffic injuries and fatalities and 52% of all collisions in South L.A. are hit and runs, statistics Diaz hopes to lower through her work with SAFE. She wants to save lives and keep other families from experiencing what hers did. So, she holds events, creates outreach programs, and presses the city for safer streets hoping to add stop signs and speed bumps in her community.

“It’s a goal I am proud to be a part of and I won’t stop until I reach it,” said Diaz.

Her resiliency and passion will help create change on the streets of South L.A. SAFE hopes to lower pedestrian fatalities and injuries by 10% in the next six to twelve months.