On Feb. 17, 2013, Damian Kevitt and his wife, Grace, decided to go on a bicycle ride through Griffith Park in Los Angeles — and in one split second, Damian’s life completely changed.
“I was hit, pinned underneath a car, dragged by the car nearly a quarter of a mile from the streets of Griffith Park onto and down the (Interstate 5) freeway and freeway streets,” Kevitt said. “My right leg was ripped off. About 20 pounds of flesh and two minutes, 20 broken bones, 10 ribs, shattered both my shoulders, my hips, my wrists, you name it. It was a hit-and-run. The driver never stopped and was never caught.”
After that happened, Kevitt decided to start the “Finish the Ride and Finish the Run” organization to raise awareness about street safety and street violence.
“Finish the Ride and Finish the Run” held its eighth annual biking and running event, in which almost 900 people participated at West Creek Park on Sunday.
The event had multiple races including a 12‑mile family fun ride/roll, a 25‑mile tour de river ride, and a 62‑mile metric century. The running options were a 5k, 10k and 1k for children and a puppy run, too.
There was also a beer garden for attendees to enjoy, games for the children, food trucks, and booths for cyclists to gain information about different resources.
Kevitt said he wanted to emphasize something about traffic violence.
“We are numb to the amount of people whose lives are affected by traffic violence. If the number of people, you know, if they were these people that are regular, every day, are seriously injured. If that was someone who was injured by a gun or by knives, or something like that, it would be totally different,” Kevitt said.
He added that, despite what the event is for, it is a very fun event to come out and support friends or family.
“I say this to so many people, but it’s true. This is a Halloween-themed event. Costumes are optional; clothing is required. And we just have a fun time. It is, you know, we have so many people that come back year after year and know us and say hi to us and just love it,” Kevitt said.
Fran Wagener came because she wanted to get the family out of the house on a Sunday morning and get some exercise.
“I’m originally from Germany and in Germany, the streets are so much safer than here. People walk a lot more (in Germany), they ride their bicycles everywhere and it makes me so sad that here (in the United States), it’s most of the time not possible to do that. So, I’m all about raising awareness and getting everybody outside,” Wagener said.
When asked what it felt like to see so many people supporting the same cause as Wagener, she smiled and said she loved it.
“I didn’t expect so many people to be here. And it’s crazy to see all these people. And I just love that,” Wagener said.
Brett Slaughenhaupt, expo area manager at the event, said it was wonderful for people in the community to come together for such an important cause.
“It’s really wonderful to kind of come together and gather under positive circumstances. So often we’re having to, you know, protest the newest hit and run that caused a death or, you know, unsafe roads to kind of push for better policy. But here we’re able to kind of celebrate all of the great work that we continue to do,” Slaughenhaupt said.
Slaughenhaupt added that Finish the Ride, Finish the Run does not like to use the term “accidents,” but rather “crashes” or “collisions” in its place because they are preventable.
“Because the idea of an accident kind of presupposes inevitability. We like to, we think like the term collision or crash holds accountable, the fact that these unsafe circumstances caused it and we can resolve it,” Slaughenhaupt said.
Adam Richardson and his daughter, Adria, 7, came because they want to support having safe streets for everyone. He said they had just come back from the 12k bike ride.
Richardson wanted the community to know one thing about the event, and it was simply to get involved.
“Whether it’s walking, running, riding a bike, it doesn’t really matter. It’s really just about supporting, just kind of a holistic (way of exercise),” Richardson said.
