Lack of Concern about Los Angeles’s Bicycle Accident Fatalities

This year alone, there have been 13 bicycle accident fatalities in Los Angeles. That is a shocking number, and it is just one fatality less than the number of bicycle accident fatalities that have been recorded this year in the city of London. However, while in London, the British public is up in arms against this increasing number of bicycle fatalities and is demanding safer biking conditions, no such outcry is being generated in Los Angeles.

According to the bicycling blog, Biking in LA, the differences in attitudes in the British capital and in the City of Angels towards the increasing number of bicycle accident deaths is appalling. While the California media has been focusing very heavily on the increase in the number of traffic accident fatalities in 2012 compared to the previous year, there has been little focus on the fact that much of that increase is due to the fact that bicycle accident fatalities are actually increasing in California. Nowhere is this more evident than in Los Angeles.

What is even more appalling is the fact that hit-and-run accidents are becoming a major danger to bicyclists in Los Angeles and across California. Out of the 13 bicycle accident fatalities occurred this year, nine occurred in hit-and-runs. The bicycling accident fatality toll in Los Angeles is even more shocking, considering that there were just five bicycle accident fatalities each over the past two years.

Any time bicycle safety groups attempt to raise questions about the increasing number of fatalities, they are met with standard answers that try to blame bicyclists. For instance, there is a growing trend now on blaming distracted bicyclists and pedestrians for the accidents that they are involved in. This is in spite of the fact that most bicyclists are responsible, and obey all traffic safety rules.