Councilman Wants More Barriers On Venice Boardwalk

VENICE (CBSLA.com) — A day after a car careened into a crowd of people on the Venice Beach boardwalk, a local lawmaker says more barriers should be put up to keep vehicular traffic away.

Los Angeles Councilman Mike Bonin, who represents the Venice area, said he plans to introduce a motion during next week's council meeting for measures to restrict non-emergency vehicular access to pedestrian zones, like the boardwalk.

"Every day there are probably 10 or 20 people who accidentally come onto Ocean Front Walk," Bonin told KNX 1070's Claudia Peschiutta. "It's an accident waiting to happen and last night someone took advantage of that to do a horrible, horrific assault."

Bonin said he's been talking with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti along with police and fire officials. The council is scheduled to meet Tuesday.

"I think that we need to have some short-term and immediate stuff to restrict access while we look at getting the funding for the longer term stuff," Bonin said.

One longtime local resident of Venice says he's not surprised by Saturday's crash.

"People wander onto it in their cars and start driving up and then they stop and they realize they shouldn't be driving on this," the man said. "I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often."

The deadly accident on the boardwalk claimed one life and injured 11 others.

RELATED STORIES:
» Man Arrested In Deadly Hit-And-Run At Venice Beach Boardwalk
» Witnesses: Driver Was 'Out For Blood' In Venice Boardwalk Crash That Killed 1, Injured 11

(©2013 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)