Memorial bench unveiled at the 'Slauson Six' site where a traveling nurse crashed and killed 6
On the one-year anniversary of a tragic car crash in Windsor Hills that killed six people, a memorial bench honoring the Slauson Six was unveiled.
Community leaders and family members of those who lost their lives on Aug. 4, 2022, when a traveling nurse from Texas careened through the intersection of Slauson and La Brea Avenue, joined Friday morning to honor and remember.
The memorial bench with the images of those who were killed on it, along with a memorial garden, was unveiled Friday near the site where the accident happened.
"This memorial gives us a place to, if you will, lay down the burden, to honor them. But it also gives us a place to come to, to reflect and think about not only those six lives lost, and what their futures could have been, but what responsibility each of us individually has to make sure all of our communities are safe," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell.
According to the CHP, 37-year-old Nicole Lorraine Linton ran a red light on La Brea Avenue, at Slauson, and crashed into about a half-dozen other cars. Two vehicles then burst into flames.
Linton was arrested following the collision and is facing vehicular manslaughter charges.
The victims of the crash and those honored on the bench include; 23-year-old Asherey Ryan, her son who was a week shy of his first birthday, her unborn child, and her boyfriend Reynold Lester. Natasha Lewis, 42, and 38-year-old Lynette Noble also lost their lives that day as they were driving to the mall and were hit by Linton's car.
"At some point, we'll move beyond coming here and feeling sad. It will be a place we can find peace and have warm, loving memories of the lives lost and a place to come to reaffirm our commitment to increasing the safety in our community – to reducing our own driving speed … and stopping our habits around distracted driving," said Mitchell.
The supervisor said she is developing a Community Traffic Safety Plan to install infrastructure improvements in high-crash areas. Mitchell said she is working with residents in the Ladera Heights, Windsor Hills, and View Park neighborhoods, seeing what it would take to make high-traffic intersections safer.
The sister of Asherey Ryan said she couldn't go near the intersection after her sister's death. But Friday, at the unveiling, she said the bench gives her family a special place to connect and remember. "Now that we have this memorial, I now have a reason to come back over here. We now have a space where we can go and connect with our sister and nephews," said Shoshanna Kerr.