Parents of four Pepperdine students struck and killed on Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in Malibu in 2023, along with a student who was injured in the same crash have filed lawsuits Tuesday against the State of California, Caltrans, the California Coastal Commission, Los Angeles County and Malibu. The actions were filed separately in the Santa Monica Superior Court. The actions contend each of the entities share liability for the allegedly dangerous roadway design on that portion of PCH. The lawsuits also contend that life-saving measures were not implemented.
“For far too long, Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu has been and continues to be unsafe for pedestrians and drivers alike,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys said in a joint statement. “As a result of the defendants’ complacency, far too many lives have been needlessly lost.” The goal of the lawsuits is to force the government entities to “do what they should have done a long time ago so no more lives are needlessly taken,” according to the joint plaintiffs’ attorneys’ statement. Caltrans did not reply to a request for comment.
Since 2010 fifty-nine people have been killed on this Malibu section of the PCH. Law enforcement reports speeding as the most common factor linking these deaths. Pepperdine seniors Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams were walking to an event on Oct. 17 when they were struck and killed on the northbound shoulder of a section of PCH known as “Dead Man’s Curve,” a short stretch between Las Flores Canyon and Carbon Canyon Roads.
According to reports, this specific stretch of PCH has seen the highest number of auto accidents on the overall 21-mile coastal road. The four sorority sisters were killed when a driver lost control of his vehicle on the curving road and traveled into the northbound shoulder. After the driver lost control he first collided with a legally parked car, then continued northbound and struck the four women as well as a fifth student, who was injured, but survived. No safeguards were in place for pedestrians even though the defendants have known about the dangers for decades, the suits allege.
A sheriff’s captain reported that from 2013-23 there were 53 deaths and 92 serious injuries in the area and attempts to improve conditions through law enforcement have had minimal or temporary results, according to the suits. Actor Rob Lowe, a Malibu resident, tweeted his feelings after a June 2015 crash that killed rapper MC Supreme, calling the singer’s death “sad and unacceptable,” the suit states.
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