Every evening this week, 8-year-old Jeremiah Hicks’ family has gathered outside their apartment to mourn his death and reminisce about his life. He was jovial, ready with jokes, loved go-karts and trampolines and playing outside with friends.
They say Jeremiah was out playing on Saturday afternoon when he ran after a ball and onto Paramount Boulevard near 56th Street. A car hit him. Now, instead of looking forward to his promotion ceremony from second grade, his family must “pick out a small casket” and raise funds to cover his funeral, Jeremiah’s cousin Jessica Roberts said.
Police are still investigating the crash but said the driver who struck Jeremiah doesn’t appear to have been speeding, distracted or impaired.
The speed limit on that stretch of Paramount, between Davenport Park and the large Seaport Village Apartments complex where Jeremiah lived, is 40 mph.
Monique Boochie, Jeremiah’s mom, says the city of Long Beach should have done more to slow drivers down. She’s pressing local officials to act before anyone else is killed.
“I’m not just going to lie down; he deserves justice,” Boochie said.
At minimum, she said, there should be a sign warning drivers that children could be playing nearby. She would like to see speed bumps along with a sign showing drivers how fast they’re traveling.
In recent years, Long Beach has been trying in vain to reduce traffic deaths. Last year saw the city reach its highest tally in more than a decade. So far this year, 24 people have been killed, nine more than at this point last year, according to data tracked by the Long Beach Post.
Two years ago, a 4-year-old girl was killed at nearly the same spot as Jeremiah.
“You would think, even then, that something would have happened,” Roberts said.
The city has acted in other areas, reducing speeds on nearly 200 streets throughout Long Beach and spending millions to revamp bike lanes and safety features on major arteries like nearby Artesia Boulevard. But the City Council has acknowledged that many safety features are too slow to arrive.
The city has plans to add a new traffic signal at Paramount and South Street just north of where Jeremiah was killed. It will have upgraded controllers to help manage speed, said city spokesperson Jocelin Padilla. But it’s not expected to arrive until the summer.
Padilla said the city prioritizes new safety measures based on which streets have the most crashes with injuries, and Paramount Boulevard is not one of those streets.
“It’s hard not to be angry,” said Isaac Martinez with Car-Lite Long Beach, who organized a bike ride on Wednesday honoring Jeremiah and others killed in traffic.
Roberts, Jeremiah’s cousin, described Paramount Boulevard as “open season” on pedestrians. She said Jeremiah knew how to safely cross the street and wouldn’t have run into the road if he had seen the car.
His death has been especially hard on his 7-year-old niece, according to the family.
“They were like Thing 1 and Thing 2,” Roberts said.
Jeremiah was the “tough, sticky glue,” Roberts said, that bound them all together.
“It is absolutely heartbreaking,” she said.
You can donate to Jeremiah’s family here.