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Actor Orson Bean Killed On LA Street Known As Highly Dangerous For Pedestrians
Actor Orson Bean died after being struck by multiple cars while trying to cross Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles' Venice neighborhood on Friday, Feb. 7, 2020. Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
Last Friday, 91-year-old actor Orson Bean was reportedly attempting to cross Venice Boulevard when he was hit by multiple cars and killed.
Los Angeles police said Bean was not in a marked crosswalk as he tried to get across the roadway between Shell Avenue and Pisani Place to the Pacific Residence Theater in Venice. The L.A. Times reported it is not uncommon for that area of the roadway as patrons park and try to get to the theater across the street.
Bean was killed on a stretch of Venice Boulevard that’s been identified as a dangerous corridor as part of the city’s High-Injury Network — a 6%-share of city streets where 70% of all pedestrian deaths and serious injuries occur.
In Jan. 2017, another pedestrian, identified as 24-year-old Venice resident Anthony Brown, was killed by a hit-and-run driver on the same street just south of Shell Avenue.
The L.A. Department of Transportation has dozens of safety improvement projects slated for streets and intersections throughout the 470-mile High-Injury Network, but there are no current plans for that section of Venice Boulevard, according to city data.
Bean’s death is another addition to the high death toll of people killed by drivers while walking in L.A. Over the last five years, preliminary city data shows the number of pedestrians killed by drivers jumped from 88 in 2015 to 134 in 2019 — an increase of more than 50%.
That death toll grew even as Mayor Eric Garcetti launched Vision Zero in 2015 — a safety initiative with a mission to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries from traffic collisions by 2025.
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The policy is focused on protecting the city’s “most vulnerable road users, including children, older adults, and people walking and bicycling,” according to LADOT’s program website.
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