Inspired by tragedy, 'Finish the Ride' hopes to make roads safer
A tragic bicycling accident where a car hit a man on the I-5 Freeway, dragged him ¼ mile, and left him with a prosthetic leg, inspired this weekend's run and bicycle event at Griffith Park.
It's the 10th annual Finish the Ride and Finish the Run event at the park and Damian Kevitt hopes to prevent the accident that nearly killed him a decade ago from happening to anyone else.
Kevitt's horrific 2013 hit-and-run accident happened near Griffith Park, and even though the driver has never been identified, the incident drove Kevitt to start his nonprofit "Streets are for Everyone" (SAFE).
"LA is known as the hit and run capital of the U.S., 48% of all collisions in the U.S. are hit and runs," said Kevitt. He explained that his nonprofit was originally focused on hit-and-runs, but has evolved to reckless speeding which is becoming more prevalent across Southern California.
"Last year was a record-breaking year. We had 312 fatalities and tens of thousands of people seriously injured just in the city of Los Angeles. A majority of those are just from reckless speeding." Said Kevitt.
"We've been focusing on how to address the issues of speeding. How do you either do fair and equitable enforcement or reengineer roads, education, awareness, it's a multifaceted problem – but people are dying as a result of it."
Thousands of people are attending this weekend's run and ride. Saturday the 5K, 10K, and half marathon took place and Sunday is the bicycle ride.
