Deadly Forest Lawn Crash Reinforces Push for Safety Improvements Paused by Mayor Bass

A week ago, a speeding driver perished in a fiery crash on Forest Lawn Drive, directly across from the entrance to Mount Sinai cemetery.

That fatal crash is the latest in a series of traffic violence tragedies along Forest Lawn Drive; a street that is part of Griffith Park.

Just after midnight on February 12, 2012, actor Zina Bethune Feeley stepped out of her car to care for what she thought was a wounded opossum in the road. A hit-and-run driver struck her, throwing her into the opposing traffic lane, where a second driver struck her. The L.A. Times reported that her body was dragged 600 feet during the fatal crash.

In 2022, a driver was crushed to death, and another hospitalized, in a two-car crash there.

According to L.A. City Transportation Department (LADOT) figures, between 2013 and 2023, 95 collisions were reported along this part of Forest Lawn, including three fatal or severe injury crashes.

Starting in 2023, L.A. City Councilmember and now mayoral candidate, Nithya Raman shepherded an LADOT community input process to design Forest Lawn safety improvements. LADOT proposed reducing four car lanes to two, adding/lengthening left turn lanes, and installing protected bike lanes.

Even after Raman and LADOT made several design concessions for them, the mortuaries along Forest Lawn strongly opposed the project, terming it “a permanent traffic disaster.” The cemeteries repeatedly pressed Raman and Mayor Karen Bass to stop the project.

The project, originally anticipated to be installed in 2024, was delayed for years. According to Raman, in May of this year, Forest Lawn “final striping and design plans were complete,” and “construction was scheduled to begin in June.”

In May, Mayor Bass intervened, pausing the project via a letter directing city department heads to maintain the existing traffic lanes, come up with a new plan, and do more community outreach. Bass’ letter directed LADOT to formulate a new design by June 12, and to conclude outreach on the new design by July 10. Three months later, no progress has been announced.

This week, Raman joined with livable streets advocates, including Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE) and Streets for All, to mourn another Forest Lawn traffic death, and to call on Mayor Bass to, in Raman’s words, “to stop delaying these Forest Lawn safety and mobility project improvements and immediately allow them to move forward.”

Three years into the push for a safer Forest Lawn Drive, Mayor Bass (in the L.A. Times) stated that she anticipates a new Forest Lawn design without the elimination of lanes and with “signal modifications to increase safety.” Per Bass, “I think that the Department of Transportation will be forthcoming with that very soon.”

This week, SAFE published an extensive account of the Forest Lawn project, including impacts, designs, documentation of speeding, project timelines, and more.