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Three years ago, Channing Frykman was going through the crosswalk at Pacific Coast Highway and Trancas Canyon Road in Malibu when a speeding car struck her, throwing her across the iconic highway.
Her head slammed into the pavement as she landed on the right side of her body.
She required three months in brain rehab neurosurgical care for a central spinal fluid leak, neurological and orthopedic procedures, and physical, cognitive and vestibular therapies. Today, she is finally beginning to walk without a cane but still suffering from trauma.
The curving 21-mile stretch of PCH through Malibu is one of California’s most famous and picturesque roads, a ribbon where the sand and ocean meet the green coastal hills.
But as Malibu residents well know, it is also a danger zone. Fast cars. Sharp curves. And people on foot, forced to navigate between the beaches and local businesses, often caught in the middle.
Deadly pedestrian crashes have roiled Malibu for decades and sparked repeated calls for more safety measures.
But a Times analysis shows that despite various safety improvements, serious accidents along PCH have actually gotten more common. Data show 170 deaths and serious injuries to drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians between 2011 and 2023.
For the record:
12:06 p.m. Oct. 30, 2023A previous version of this story misidentified a pedestrian who was struck on Pacific Coast Highway three years ago as Channing Berkman. She is Channing Frykman.
And the numbers rose every year from 2018 through 2022. There have been 20 or more people killed or seriously injured in each of the three previous years.
Malibu’s numbers are considerably worse than other beach cities that PCH runs through, the data show.
Huntington Beach, whose stretch of PCH is about half as long as Malibu’s, saw an average of just under five traffic deaths and serious injuries between 2011 and 2022. After a high of 10 such deaths and injuries in 2015, the trend has steadily declined, according to data from the California Highway Patrol.
In Malibu, however, that number averaged nearly 13 during the same period — far higher than in Huntington Beach, even when adjusting for length of road. Traffic flow data from the California Department of Transportation in 2017 suggest a comparable number of cars pass through the busiest areas of both the Orange County and L.A. County stretches of PCH.
Across California — and the U.S. — pedestrian fatalities have increased “at a significant rate,” said Tim Weisberg, a spokesman for the California Office of Traffic Safety.
In 2021, 1,108 pedestrians were killed on California roads, a nearly 20% increase from 2016, he said. In that same year, 7,500 people were killed nationwide in pedestrian crashes, the highest total since 1981, Weisberg said.
Nearly 30 people spoke at Monday’s emotional Malibu City Council meeting, expressing grief and anger about the deadly danger posed by a stretch of PCH.
Pedestrian safety is once again at the top of Malibu’s agenda after four students from nearby Pepperdine University — Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams — were killed last week while walking on a sidewalk in the 21600 block of PCH.
The collision, which shocked the community, was the deadliest pedestrian-vehicle crash in Los Angeles County since at least 2012, according to data from the Transportation Injury Mapping System at UC Berkeley.
Flowers sit at the 21600 block of Pacific Coast Highway near the site where four Pepperdine students were killed by a passing car.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
“This has got to stop,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Jennifer Seetoo, who works at the Malibu/Lost Hills sheriff’s station.
Seeto said she lost a friend to a drunk driver on the highway in 1997, when Kimberly Dawn Ellis, a Pepperdine University law student, and a classmate were killed in a head-on collision.
“This is very personal to me, and, you know, I’m just tired,” Seetoo said.
In the wake of the latest crash, residents demanded speed cameras be added, the speed limit reduced and more sheriff’s deputies and CHP officers policing the highway. The City Council voted this week to ask staff for a report on the proposals and to consider a motion to declare an emergency, which would free up resources in the jurisdiction.
But it’s unclear whether these measures will work better than earlier attempts.
The city has spent $39 million on traffic safety improvement projects that placed a bike route on Zuma Beach and installed an arrester bed (a material that stops runaway vehicles). In addition, a crosswalk installation and traffic signal, median and intersection improvements have been made.
It also has $8 million set aside for a traffic signal synchronization project, which will integrate signals on PCH from Topanga Canyon Boulevard to John Tyler Drive. The project, which started this year and is set to be completed in 2025, will have the signals controlled by Caltrans’ Traffic Management Center.
In addition, Malibu has funded programs such as the sheriff’s Volunteers on Patrol, which uses community members to assist with things such as traffic control. It also installed automatic license plate readers, according to a PCH safety study in 2015.
What caused speeding BMW to crash, killing 4 Pepperdine students? Dueling claims amid murder charges
Fraser Michael Bohm, 22, faces four counts of malice murder and four counts of gross vehicular manslaughter in the Oct. 17 crash in Malibu.
Seetoo said she’d like speed cameras installed along the highway.
When drivers see a police officer behind them, she said, their instinct is to check their speedometer and slow down. She thinks speed cameras would further enforce that behavior, especially after drivers get an automatic speeding ticket in the mail.
A view looking south near the 21600 block of Pacific Coast Highway where four Pepperdine students were killed by a passing car.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
But what the city of Malibu can do directly is limited because PCH is under Caltrans’ jurisdiction.
“We are dependent upon outside entities to come in to give us some help,” said Steve Uhring, Malibu’s mayor.
Fraser Michael Bohm, 22, is charged with four counts of murder and four counts of gross vehicular manslaughter.
Caltrans said safety improvements to PCH between Santa Monica and Oxnard have included “traffic signals, median delineators, raised center medians, crosswalks, high-visibility lane striping, improved guardrails and pedestrian-activated crosswalk beacons.”
Such safety enhancements have long been the focus of the PCH Taskforce, a coalition of community representatives, pedestrian and bicycle advocates, law enforcement personnel, city and traffic engineers, Caltrans leaders, and local and state elected officials formed nearly a quarter of a century ago.
Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), the group’s co-chair, said it’s time to dramatically increase the scope of the task force’s efforts “or find another vehicle for a convening of these different entities to talk about more substantive policy changes in terms of the highway.”
“I think more broadly in the long term I really welcome a broader discussion involving the re-envisioning of a highway that was established at a time when far fewer people were living along the road,” Allen said.
The crash that killed the Pepperdine students occurred shortly before 9 p.m. Oct. 17. Uhring says the community goes to bed early, leaving PCH open to “people with fast cars that want to take advantage of the empty road.”
(Pepperdine University)
Los Angeles County prosecutors say Fraser Michael Bohm, 22, was speeding at 104 mph before he lost control of his BMW and crashed into three parked cars before striking the young women in the fatal collision. The stretch of road has a speed limit of 45 mph.
Bohm faces four counts of malice murder and four counts of gross vehicular manslaughter, Dist. Atty. George Gascón said during a Wednesday news conference, adding that the charges stem from Bohm’s “complete disregard for the life of others.”
But Bohm’s attorney, Michael Kraut, says his client was not traveling that fast. He has forwarded a claim to prosecutors alleging that another vehicle was involved in the crash and said his client was the victim of a road-rage incident that night. Authorities say they have found no evidence to support that claim.
After four young women were struck and killed by a car on Pacific Coast Highway, their friends shared warm memories amid their grief.
In the days since the tragedy in Malibu, drivers continued to speed recklessly on PCH. Early Sunday morning, an 18-year-old driver without a license was arrested on suspicion of reckless driving at a speed of 109 mph, authorities said.
Meanwhile, Pepperdine plans to honor the young women who were killed. The university plans to present posthumous degrees to the four, who were all seniors.
A GoFundMe page by the campus’ Sigma Chi fraternity had raised over $10,000 by Thursday in memory of the slain students.
Flowers sit at the 21600 block of Pacific Coast Highway near the site where four Pepperdine students were killed by a passing car.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The money would fund a memorial on campus, donations to the families, an attempt to adopt a stretch of PCH and scholarships in the women’s names.
Times staff writers Richard Winton and Jeremy Childs and deputy director for data and graphics George LeVines contributed to this report.
