Regan Cole-Graham's 3-year-old son was still strapped to the back of her bike when the car pushed it forward. That is how investigators found him after an 87-year-old driver hit the back of Regan's bike from behind, ejected her onto the road, and ran over her on a February afternoon in Playa del Rey.

Regan was 36 years old, a Google executive, and seven months pregnant with her third child — a girl. She was riding with her husband and two children when the white Camry struck her at the intersection of Pershing Drive and Manchester Avenue. Her 3-year-old son was expected to survive. Regan was not.

Two Lives Lost in One Crash

Doctors delivered Regan's baby girl by emergency cesarean at 31 weeks. The baby died in the NICU the following day. The driver remained at the scene. Authorities said they did not believe alcohol or drugs were factors.

As of this writing, no charges have been filed against the 87-year-old driver.

Regan had built something quietly significant in her neighborhood. A group of mothers who met through her gathered weekly for brunch and called themselves the Baby Breakfast Club. Her sister Caitlin Cole, a trauma center worker, has been finishing the 12-mile bike ride Regan never completed — riding Regan's blue bike to do it.

The Bike Lane That Was Removed Before She Rode That Road

This is the detail that changes the shape of everything else: Pershing Drive once had a protected bike lane. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation installed it as part of a Safe Streets project. Then opponents, led by a group called Keep LA Moving, filed a lawsuit arguing the bike lanes posed — in their own words — "significant national security implications." The lanes were removed.

Regan was killed on that same stretch of Pershing Drive, without those lanes in place.

Her husband is now preparing a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles. His position is direct: "That protection, that area of safety was taken away and we believe that was a critical factor."

It is important to be precise about what is known and what is not. Whether the removed bike lanes were a direct contributing cause of the crash, or whether Regan's death could have been prevented had they remained, is disputed and unconfirmed. Advocates and family members have argued the connection clearly. Others, including independent analysts, have noted the causal link has not been established as fact. That question is now, in part, one for the courts.

What Accountability Looks Like From Here

The driver has not been charged. The city has not acknowledged responsibility. The family is carrying the weight of two deaths and a legal battle at the same time.

The wrongful death lawsuit will force a public accounting of the decision to remove the Pershing Drive bike lanes — who made it, why, and whether the city had any obligation to the people using that road after the safety infrastructure was gone. That accounting has not happened yet.

Regan Cole-Graham was riding with her family on a Sunday afternoon. Her son survived. Her daughter did not make it past her first day. And the street where it happened had been deemed safe enough for cyclists years before, then changed — not by accident, but by decision.