BikinginLA

Gil Cedillo killed a man in Highland Park Wednesday night.

No, the former CD1 councilmember wasn’t behind the wheel when a man riding an ebike was run down from behind on North Figueroa, but he might as well have been.

Because it was Cedillo who singlehandedly killed a fully funded and shovel-ready safety project to tame the deadly corridor in 2014, after a series of sham public meetings in which only opponents of the project were allowed to be heard.

Now yet another man has lost his life, exactly where traffic lanes should have been narrowed and bike lanes installed over a decade ago — just the latest in a string of violent collisions that have left at least five people dead since 2015, keeping the corridor on LA’s High Injury Network.

According to KABC-7, the victim, described only as a 40-year old man, was riding north in the right lane of the 4500 block of North Figueroa Street when he was rear-ended by the driver of a gray sedan around 11 pm.

The victim was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The driver remained at the scene.

Video from the scene shows a mangled ebike resting on the curb, but it’s not clear enough to tell what kind of bike it is, though other sources describe it as a bicycle.

There’s no way to say for certain that the victim could be home with his family tonight had Cedillo had not been elected to replace a termed out Ed Reyes. But he would have had a better chance if the safety project approved by Reyes had been allowed to move forward.

I honestly don’t have the words left to express the sadness and anger I feel right now, after writing about seven other fallen bike riders in the last 14 days.

But Gil Cedillo has this man’s blood on his hands, and I hope his loved ones allow him to lie in repose on Cedillo’s doorstep, figuratively if not literally. And I hope they have a damn good lawyer.

This is at least the 53rd bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the 18th in Los Angeles County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.