On the border of Bixby Knolls and North Long Beach near the intersection of Orange Avenue and Del Amo Boulevard, a white bicycle has been mounted on a faded green fence tagged in numerous places with the name “Dannon Santiago.”
The memorial has been well maintained during the six months following Santiago’s death at the hands of a driver who fled the scene after hitting him. The bicycle has been decorated numerous times with flowers, cards, candles, and different signs asking “Justice for Dannon.”
The most recent decorations have been the most elaborate, with multiple signs, bouquets of flowers, tall candles with Catholic imagery on them, multi-colored candy canes, and bunches of balloons.
One wooden sign in the shape of a heart reads “Happy New Year! Dannon I love you. Miss you so much,” above the written hashtag “#JusticeForDannon.”
Santiago was riding his bike southbound on Orange Avenue early on July 26, 2020 at around 3:30 a.m. when he was struck by a vehicle traveling in the same direction, as reported by City News Service at the time.
His body was found lying in the southbound lane of Orange Avenue and paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.
Nearly half a year after his death, there is still no information about the vehicle or driver that killed the 30 year old bicyclist.
“At this time, we have no new information to share regarding the incident and the investigation to identify the vehicle is still underway,” the Long Beach Police Department told the Signal Tribune on Jan. 19.
According to the Department of Motor Vehicles, on average over 100 bicyclists in California are killed in traffic accidents each year.
From 2014 to 2019, a total of 863 bicyclists were killed in traffic collisions in California, 204 of them in LA County. In 2019 alone, 133 people in the state were killed in collisions while riding their bikes, with 36 of those deaths occurring in LA County.
Fatal car collisions disproportionately effect male bicyclists. Of the bicyclists killed in California from 2014 to 2019, an overwhelming 762 out of 863 of them were males. During the same time period in LA County, 185 of the 204 bicyclists killed by drivers were male as well.
In 2019 alone, a whopping 117 bicyclists out of the total 133 killed in the state were male. Similarly, in LA County the same year, 32 out of 36 bicyclist fatalities involved male victims, according to data provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Anyone who may have information about the hit-and-run that killed Dannon Santiago is asked to please contact Detective Kelsey Myers or Detective Shawn Loughlin of the LBPD Collision Investigation Detail at (562)570-7355.
