As the October anniversary of the killing of four Pepperdine students by a driver on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu last year approaches, Sacramento lawmakers on Friday took a major step toward making a 21-mile stretch of the highway safer.
Senate Bill 1297, which passed with bipartisan support and now awaits Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature, would allow the city of Malibu to install five camera systems to monitor the speed of drivers passing through the popular seaside community.
“A lot of people, including me, have been trying to make the highway safer for years,” said Michelle Shane, whose 13-year-old daughter, Emily, was hit and killed by a driver on the highway in 2010. “This is the first time since I’ve been so angry at them — at the county and the state — that they’ve done something. They’re finally taking it seriously.”
According to the report, between 2011 and 2023, 170 deaths or serious injuries to drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians would occur on this highway in Malibu. Times Analysis,
But the tragedy that struck shortly before 9 p.m. on Oct. 17, 2023, shocked both the community and legislators. The sisters of the Alpha Phi sorority — Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams — were killed while walking on the sidewalk along PCH when a car traveling at more than 100 mph struck parked cars and the women.
On Wednesday, a Van Nuys Superior Court judge granted a stay in the preliminary hearing for Fraser Michael Bohn, 22, who is charged with four counts of murder and four counts of vehicular manslaughter. Bohn has been released from jail on a $4 million bond.
In July, another person was killed in a head-on collision on this highway.
“Sadly, it took the deaths of these four young women to start this process,” said state Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), the author of the bill, which was passed as a five-year pilot program to collect data that could help Overcoming objections Speed cameras violate privacy and increase government surveillance.
Allen said the bill was written to get drivers to slow down and treat the highway as a boulevard. “If we can get people to take their foot off the accelerator, that will be a victory for us.”
Last October, Newsom signed into law a similar speed camera pilot program — AB 645 — for Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, Glendale, Long Beach and San Francisco. Local officials and state representatives had tried to add Malibu to that list, but faced objections because the bill did not cover state highways like PCH, which are under Caltrans’ jurisdiction.
“When we started working on this new bill we were pessimistic about it passing,” Malibu Mayor Doug Stewart said, describing his disappointment at being excluded from the first pilot program. “But we knew we had to try. It had to pass.”
“We were told SB 1297 was a long process, so we are very excited by its passage,” said Assemblymember Jackie Irvin (D-Thousand Oaks), a co-author of the bill. “We hope the governor realizes how important this is to the residents of Malibu.”
Steve Uhring, former Malibu mayor and now a council member, said the city has begun identifying vendors and locations for the cameras, but he believes it will take more than cameras to make PCH safer.
“This is another tool in our toolbox,” Uhring said. “We are meeting with Caltrans to identify other changes to PCH to calm traffic. We have to get the message out, but we know it’s not going to be an easy task.”
Last December, California Transportation Secretary Toks Omishkin announced that Caltrans had been given the award. $4.2 million contract Listing 30 upgrades to PCH from Santa Monica to Ventura County, including improved striping at curves, speed response signals and replacement of safety corridor signs.
Damian Kevitt, executive director and founder of Streets Are for Everyone, said these improvements are a long time coming.
“The PCH — as it currently looks — was designed in the 1960s,” Kiewit said, “before we had the dense housing we have today or the millions of people who flock to Malibu during the summer months. The speed limit for some stretches of the highway is dangerously fast.”
By the City of Malibu40,000 commuters pass through the city every day, and 15 million visitors make this community their destination in the summer. Since 2013, more than 4,000 traffic accidents have been recorded in the city, resulting in 1,600 injuries. More than 100,000 traffic violations have been recorded.
While officials are quick to say the goal of SB 1297 is to save lives, not collect revenue, Shane appears to benefit from issuing the notice.
“With the kind of numbers we’re seeing, I can see us making about $1 million a week,” he said. “That could be used to fix PCH and for education, teaching 10- to 13-year-olds about the dangers of driving.”
Filmmaker Shane recently completed a documentary about the PCH titled “21 Miles in Malibu.” He hopes to release it soon.
He said, ‘The thing is, you know there’s going to be another death.’ “If you just look at the statistics, that’s a certainty on PCH. But given the number of initiatives that are underway, I’d like to think that Malibu can become a model city for other cities, not a place of destruction.”
