The grieving husband of a pregnant Google executive killed while biking in Los Angeles is speaking out against the city for removing bike lanes from the street where she died.
Matt Graham, whose wife Regan Cole-Graham, 36, was struck and killed in January while seven months pregnant, told KTLA in an interview last week that he wants safety changes so no other family suffers their loss. The couple’s unborn daughter, Ophelia, died after being delivered prematurely following the crash. Their three-year-old son, who was riding with Cole-Graham, survived with minor injuries.
The family’s attorney, Brian Breiter, told KTLA that the city’s decision to remove bike lanes from Pershing Drive was a critical factor in the tragedy. “That protection, that area of safety was taken away, and we believe that was a critical factor,” Breiter said. He and the family plan to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the city for removing the bike lanes.
Cole-Graham had worked for Google in Los Angeles since 2019, where she served as Consumer Marketing Lead and later Brand Partnerships Lead, orchestrating a multi-million dollar partnership with Live Nation among other deals, according to her LinkedIn profile. She and Graham married in 2021 and shared two sons, Dale, 3, and Theo, 19 months, with Ophelia due in April.
Matt Graham previously said that Cole-Graham was an “amazing wife” and “the world’s best mother.” In his KTLA interview, he expanded on her devotion to their children.
“I feel like she was the better parent of the two of us and now I have to try and somehow make up for the void that is so impossible to fill,” Graham told KTLA. “They were addicted to their mother in the best way possible because she was always there for them, always wanted to play and be outside with them.”
Graham wrote in an Instagram post that he decided to share his story publicly for the first time because he wanted the world to “remember how amazing she was in every way, and how ridiculously excited she was to be a ‘girl mom’ for the first time nearly 8-months pregnant with Ophelia.”
“Whatever it takes to better the city for other families, because I don’t want any other family to ever have to deal with what we have had to deal with,” he said to KTLA.
In the viral moment that sparked citywide outrage, Cole-Graham was riding with her family on the evening of January 31 near the intersection of Pershing Drive and Manchester Avenue in Playa del Rey when an 87-year-old driver in a white Toyota Camry struck the rear of her e-bike. LAPD officers stated that the vehicle continued southbound, rolling over Cole-Graham while pushing the bicycle forward with her son still strapped in the seat. Graham and their other child were riding alongside and were unhurt. The driver remained at the scene and has not been charged; police do not believe alcohol or drugs were factors.
The deaths prompted a memorial bike ride on February 27 that drew roughly 1,000 riders from Western Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard to Playa del Rey, many wearing purple to honor the mother and daughter. Cole-Graham’s father, Jeff Cole, organized the gathering at Hacienda Playa. “We were looking up the hill. They were still coming down…. We could not be more humbled and proud,” he told the crowd, according to the University Times.
Community activists have seized on the case to criticize Los Angeles’ traffic safety record. Jonathan Hale, founder of People’s Vision Zero, told the University Times that “the city has failed us.” Damian Kevitt, founder of Streets Are For Everyone, who lost his leg in a 2013 hit-and-run, stated that “what happened to Regan and Ophelia and her family was entirely preventable.” A city audit found Los Angeles’ Vision Zero program, which pledged to eliminate all traffic deaths by 2025, barely implemented with millions unspent; the city has quietly extended its deadline another 10 years.
A GoFundMe created for the family has raised more than $302,000 to pay for funeral expenses and help with the children’s future.