Last Thursday evening’s fatal crash on Rossmore Avenue traumatized everyone on the block, residents told the Buzz. Accidents happen all the time on Rossmore, explained 25 year resident Vanessa Herman, but nothing as grave and deadly as the one that happened last week.
As far as the police and neighbors could tell, the driver was speeding northbound on the street when he passed another car on the right. The driver lost control of the vehicle. He hit two parked cars and a tree, causing the car to flip over and land wheels down. The driver was wearing a three-point racing harness seatbelt according to LAPD who spoke with residents this afternoon. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Neighbors told the Buzz he is currently brain dead and not expected to recover. The impact of the crash ripped off the roof of the car and ejected the passenger who police identified as 30-year-old Rueben Gonzalez. He was found wrapped around a light pole and pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.
“The speeding has gotten way way worse,” Rossmore resident Susan Lizotte told the Buzz. “Beverly Boulevard and Wilshire Boulevard are the “bookends” for our residential area and we feel it is well overdue to treat our area as residential and not a commercial speed zone.”
During the day, Rossmore is often clogged with traffic, but at night this half-mile section of the street becomes a speedway, according to residents. Moments before the accident, two young women were walking down the street. Residents fear for their lives if nothing is done to reduce the speeds.
“We continue to try to work with the city to get more LAPD officers to give traffic tickets in the neighborhood,” Hancock Park HOA president Cindy Chvatal-Keane told the Buzz. “We were successful getting additional LAPD support for patrols following an uptick in property crime, thanks to discretionary fund provided by Councilmember Paul Koretz’s office. However, we are being told there simply isn’t the personnel dedicated to traffic.”
But Chvatal-Keane said she would contact the council office and ask for help to investigate ways to reduce the speeding on Rossmore.
Time to implement automated speed and red light enforcement at every intersection.