• KOA’S WAY

Guiding the Way to Safe Walking & Biking Paths for Menifee Youth

In Memory of Koa Myric Quintanilla

On August 12, 2026, our family experienced an unimaginable loss when 15-year-old Koa Myric Quintanilla was killed in a hit-and-run in Menifee.

Losing Koa has caused our family to look more closely at the roads our children travel every day and to ask an important question:

Can our children safely walk or ride from their neighborhoods to their schools, parks, and community spaces?

For too many areas of Menifee, there are gaps in the sidewalks, bike lanes, crossings, and other infrastructure our children depend on.

Our kids are walking.

Our kids are riding.

They need a safe way to get where they are going.

THE ISSUE

Our Youth Need Safe and Connected Routes

Menifee continues to grow, and with that growth comes a responsibility to make sure our infrastructure keeps up with the needs of our families.

Children and teenagers walk and ride bikes and e-bikes to school, parks, friends' homes, and throughout their neighborhoods.

Yet some routes leave pedestrians and young riders traveling alongside vehicle traffic without continuous sidewalks, designated bike lanes, safe crossings, or adequate separation from the roadway.

For a child trying to get from home to school or a neighborhood park, even one missing section of sidewalk or bike lane can create an unsafe situation.

A safe route should not end halfway to a child's destination.

The area of Briggs Road and Garbani Road, where Koa's accident occurred, has made this issue deeply personal to our family.

But we also know this is bigger than one location.

We want to know where these gaps exist throughout Menifee so they can be identified and addressed before another tragedy occurs.

THE SOLUTION

Create Safe, Connected Walking & Biking Paths Throughout Menifee

Through Koa's Way, we are asking the City of Menifee to evaluate pedestrian and bicycle safety along Briggs Road and Garbani Road and to conduct a broader review of routes connecting residential neighborhoods to schools, parks, recreation areas, and other places frequently traveled by Menifee youth.

Where gaps or unsafe conditions are identified, we ask the City to develop a plan for improvements that can create safer, more connected routes for our children.

This should include evaluating the need for:

- Continuous sidewalks and walking paths

- Safe and connected bike and e-bike lanes

- Protected or separated paths where appropriate

- Safe pedestrian and bicycle crossings

- Improvements at dangerous intersections

- Better lighting and visibility

- Appropriate signage and traffic safety measures

- Vehicle speed and traffic conditions on routes frequently used by children

- Safe connections between residential neighborhoods, schools, parks, and recreation areas

- Input from parents, students, schools, residents, and the young people who use these routes every day

FROM OUR NEIGHBORHOODS TO OUR SCHOOLS AND PARKS

A child should be able to leave their neighborhood and have a safe path to school.

A teenager riding a bike or e-bike should have a safe route to a park.

A family walking together should not suddenly reach the end of a sidewalk and be forced closer to vehicle traffic.

Safe infrastructure should connect the places where our children live to the places where our children learn, play, and grow.

This is not about assigning blame for what has already happened.

It is about preventing what could happen next.

KOA’S WAY

Let His Memory Help Guide the Way Forward

Koa was only 15 years old.

He loved being outside, riding, spending time with his friends, music, football, and simply being a kid.

Koa also cared deeply about the people around him. He leaves behind two younger brothers and a community of kids he cared about and protected.

We cannot change what happened to Koa.

But we can choose what we do in his memory.

We can look at the paths his brothers, his friends, and thousands of other Menifee children will travel in the years ahead and ask ourselves:

Have we done everything we reasonably can to make their way safer?

That is what Koa's Way represents.

It is a commitment to look forward.

To identify the gaps.

To connect our communities.

To give our children safer ways to walk and ride.

And to allow Koa's legacy of caring for and protecting those around him to continue through meaningful change in the community he called home.

OUR REQUEST TO THE CITY OF MENIFEE

We respectfully ask the City of Menifee to begin by evaluating Briggs Road and Garbani Road and to expand that effort into a citywide review of safe walking and biking connections between residential neighborhoods, schools, parks, and recreation areas.

Where those safe connections do not exist, we ask the City to identify solutions and create a plan for making them a reality.

Let Koa's memory guide the way toward a safer Menifee.

KOA’S WAY

For Koa.

For his brothers.

For our youth.

For Menifee.

Please sign and share Koa's Way and stand with our family in asking the City of Menifee to make safe, connected walking and biking paths for our youth a priority.

Every child deserves a safe way home.