One particular person died and two others had been injured in a head-on collision Thursday night time on a stretch of street in Malibu that has turn into more and more harmful lately, in keeping with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division.
The collision occurred shortly after 10 p.m. within the 22000 block of Pacific Coast Freeway when the driving force of a 2019 Mercedes Benz, touring east, crossed the middle median and collided head on with a westbound 2020 Cadillac SUV, the division stated in an announcement.
“Because of the collision, the driving force of the Cadillac succumbed to his accidents on the scene,” the assertion learn. “The passenger of the Cadillac and the driving force of the Mercedes Benz had been transported to an area hospital and handled for non-life threatening accidents.”
Each instructions of Pacific Coast Freeway had been shut down for hours whereas authorities probed the lethal crash. Authorities didn’t determine the sufferer and stated the reason for the accident stays underneath investigation.
The deadly collision occurred on the identical stretch of street the place 4 Pepperdine college students had been killed in site visitors accident on October 2023, prompting residents to name on authorities and regulation enforcement officers to handle hazard and reckless driving on the favored state freeway.
Prosecutors alleged that Fraser Michel Bohm, 22, was rushing when he misplaced management and struck parked automobiles the place the 4 college students had been standing, killing them. Bohm is dealing with 4 counts of homicide and 4 counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross neglience. Bohm has pleaded not responsible to the fees.
Since that deadly crash, a coalition of regulation enforcement businesses, site visitors engineers, Caltrans, native and state officers fashioned the PCH Taskforce to assist make the freeway safer from the McClure Tunnel in Santa Monica to the Ventura County line.
Moreover, town of Malibu declared an area emergency and launched into a collection of initiatives in partnership with state officers, transportation and regulation enforcement businesses to enhance street security on its 21-mile stretch of PCH. The efforts embrace putting in new site visitors indicators, bringing again patrols by the California Freeway Patrol, and launching street initiatives to create lane separators and synchronize its sign lights to regulate the pace of site visitors and cut back congestion.
Malibu officers have additionally supported state laws equivalent to Senate Invoice 1297 that can enable town to participate in a pilot program to put in rushing cameras that can mechanically report drivers racing over the restrict and situation site visitors tickets.
The CHP and the Sheriff’s Division have additionally performed a number of site visitors operations to crack down on individuals rushing on the freeway.
The operations look like serving to. Between January and April, the Sheriff’s Division recorded a complete of 70 collisions in contrast with 76 throughout the identical time interval final yr.
Constructing on that momentum, a coalition of longtime residents, Pepperdine college students, metropolis and regulation enforcement officers launched a public security marketing campaign referred to as “Cruise Malibu – Surf, Sand, Sluggish,” in an effort to assist change driving conduct on the roadway. It was the second public marketing campaign to be launched within the area.
