A crash involving vulnerable road users is always a teachable moment for the entire community. But too often the lesson is not delivered. The local media lacks the expertise and only has a police report to go by. As a group we want to offer the local knowledge which can help to analyse a collision in depth and draw lessons for the future from it.
The public often assumes that it is the job of the police to analyse a crash and initiate a public education campaign, or advance changes in the infrastructure (wider sidewalks, speed limits, etc). But this does not happen in Santa Monica.
Only a community group which combines local knowledge and road safety expertise can make sure that every collision can become a teachable moment, a step towards safer streets for all. Victims and their relatives are often very supportive of such efforts, because they want nothing more than to avoid a repetition of the pain they have suffered. When Vlado Herceg was killed in the crosswalk on Wilshire in 2011, advocates assisted the widow to raise the issue of road safety in a letter to the city manager, as reported by the local press.
Safe Streets Santa Monica will enter into a partnership with the press and media and provide expert and locally relevant feedback whenever a collision involving vulnerable road users occurs in Santa Monica. With better statistical data we can see similarities in incidents that seem isolated, we can recognize trends and help to educate road users and can assist enforcement agencies to react to new trends. For this we draw upon the training provided by the Pedestrian Safety Program for the California Office of Traffic Safety.
Safe Streets Santa Monica has strategic vision of road safety. We use administrative statistics to point a way to a safer city for all.