Deaths of 2 Spur CHP Action on Kanan Dume

The California Highway Patrol will start weighing trucks near a steep stretch of Kanan Dume Road, a popular route to Malibu beaches, after a flatbed truck carrying a load heavier than the legal limit went out of control and crushed two cars, killing two women.

CHP Officer Craig Klein said Thursday that a weigh station will be set up today to better enforce an ordinance prohibiting trucks weighing more than seven tons from traveling along the steepest section of the road, where safety has long been an issue.

On Wednesday, a truck driven by Jose Martin, 22, of Santa Monica went out of control down the hill and crashed into two cars on Pacific Coast Highway. The cars’ drivers, both Malibu women, were killed. Martin was treated for injuries and released.

Although a citation has not been issued, Klein said a preliminary investigation determined that a load of cinder blocks carried by the truck weighed 15,900 pounds, nearly a ton over the limit.

A partner in the firm that owns the truck, Santa Monica-based Bourget Bros. Building Materials, said the truck was not weighed before the trip but he denied that it was overweight.

‘Not Overweight’

“We know the weight of the material, and the way we figure it, it was not overweight,” Larry Bourget said.

Klein said the CHP will set up portable scales at a “brake check” area on Kanan south of the tunnel nearest the beach, just before vehicles begin descending an eight-degree grade that has proved treacherous in the past.

“We want to do anything that will improve safety. But, yes, yesterday’s accident sure had something to do with it,” Klein said. “To say (accidents are) frequent is inaccurate, but there is a problem . . . of an ordinance not being properly obeyed.”

Two similar accidents, in which runaway trucks careened down Kanan toward PCH, have claimed lives in the last two years, Klein said. In each of those--one in July and one last year--the drivers of the trucks were killed and occupants of cars in the trucks’ paths were injured, he said.

Accidents in the past have prompted other safety measures along the road, which twists for 11 miles through the Santa Monica Mountains to link PCH with the Ventura Freeway west of the San Fernando Valley. In 1985, the CHP began using radar to catch speeders on Kanan after five beachgoers were killed in two crashes. Area residents at the time erected a sign warning that “Death Lurks Ahead.”