‘They are finally taking this seriously’: Sacramento lawmakers OK speed cameras for PCH in Malibu

As the October anniversary approaches of the deaths of four Pepperdine students killed last year by a driver on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, lawmakers in Sacramento on Friday took a major step toward making the 21-mile stretch of highway safe.

Senate Bill 1297, passed with bipartisan support and now waiting for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature, will allow the city of Malibu to install five camera systems to monitor the speed of drivers passing through the popular oceanfront community.

“Many people, including myself, have been trying for years to make the highway safer,” said Michel Shane, whose 13-year-old daughter Emily was struck and killed by a driver on the highway in 2010. “For the first time since I’ve been angry at them — the county and the state — they have done something. They are finally taking this seriously.”

Between 2011 and 2023, 170 fatalities or serious injuries to drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians have taken place on this highway in Malibu, according to a Times analysis.

But the tragedy shortly before 9 p.m. on Oct 17, 2023, galvanized both the community and legislators. Sisters in the Alpha Phi sorority — Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams — were killed while walking on a sidewalk along PCH when a car traveling in excess of 100 mph slammed into parked cars and the women.

On Wednesday, a Superior Court judge in Van Nuys granted a continuance in a preliminary hearing for Fraser Michael Bohn, 22, charged with four counts of murder and four counts of gross vehicle manslaughter. Bohn has been released from jail on a $4-million bond.

In July, the highway claimed another life in a head-on collision.

“Sadly it took the death of these four young women to jump-start this process,” said state Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), author of the bill, which was passed as a five-year pilot program to gather data that could help overcome objections that speed cameras infringe upon privacy and lead to greater government surveillance.

The bill, said Allen, was written to get drivers to slow down and to think of the highway as more of a boulevard. “If we can get people to take their foot off the accelerator, then that’s a win.”

Last October, Newsom signed 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 place Malibu on that list but encountered objections because the bill excluded state highways like PCH, which are under the jurisdiction of Caltrans.

“We were pessimistic about passage when we got started on this new bill,” said Malibu Mayor Doug Stewart, who described the frustration of being excluded from the first pilot program. “But we knew we had to try. This had to get passed.”

“We had been told that SB 1297 was a long shot, so we’re very excited it passed,” said Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks), who co-authored the bill. “We’re hopeful that the governor will realize how important this is for the residents of Malibu.”

Steve Uhring, former mayor of Malibu and now a council member, said that the city has already begun identifying vendors and locations for the cameras, but he acknowledges that making PCH safer will take more than cameras.

“This is just another tool in our toolbox,” Uhring said. “We’re meeting with Caltrans to identify other changes to PCH to calm down the traffic. We have to get the message out, but we know this will not be an easy task.”

Last December, California Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin announced that Caltrans had been awarded a $4.2-million contract to draft a list of 30 upgrades to PCH from Santa Monica to Ventura County that includes enhanced striping in curves, speed feedback signs and replacement of safety corridor signs.

The improvements are long overdue, said Damian Kevitt, executive director and founder of Streets Are For Everyone.

“PCH — as it currently looks — was designed in the 1960s,” said Kevitt, “well before we had the dense housing we currently have or the millions who flock to Malibu during the summer months. The speed limit is dangerously fast for some portions of the highway.”

According to the city of Malibu, 40,000 commuters pass through the city every day, and 15 million visitors make the community a destination in the summer. Since 2013, the city has recorded more than 4,000 traffic collisions, which resulted in 1,600 injuries. More than 100,000 traffic citations have been written.

While officials are quick to say that SB 1297 is about saving lives and not collecting revenue, Shane sees a benefit coming from issuing citations.

“With the sort of numbers we’re looking at, I can see close to $1 million every week coming in,” he said. “That can be used to fix PCH and for education, explaining to 10- to 13-year-olds the dangers when they get behind the wheel.”

Shane, a film producer, has recently completed a documentary about PCH titled “21 Miles in Malibu.” He hopes to release it soon.

‘The thing is you know there is another death coming,” he said. “That’s a given on PCH if you just look at statistics. But with the number of initiatives going on, I would like to think that Malibu could become a model town for other cities to look and not a place of destruction.”