Vince Van Patten, whose son is of driving age, Victoria Principal and Teri Love, whose son was killed on Pacific Coast Highway, are three locals insisting on implementing ways to make the highway safer. Principal has even offered to personally finance installing “Botts’ dots,” round bumps that alert drivers when drifting.
By Olivia Damavandi / Assistant Editor
As death, destruction and DUIs continue on Pacific Coast Highway, local celebrities, parents and city officials continue to voice their concerns and brainstorm innovative ways to make the highway safer.
Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu’s main thoroughfare, is more dangerous than ever. Headlines over the years list the accidents, injuries and deaths as the result of speeders, those driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or by drivers who have fallen asleep at the wheel.
The most recent tragedy involved the death of Rodrigo Armas, 45, and serious injuries to his teenage son in June when Malibu City Clerk Robert Sam Sanchez allegedly struck the two as they were bicycling on Pacific Coast Highway. Sanchez, who is still employed by the city, has been charged with vehicular manslaughter, a DUI, and a hit and run resulting in serious bodily injury. He is scheduled for a hearing Oct. 20 at the Malibu Courthouse.
According to a state Office of Traffic Safety report, Malibu ranked No. 1 in total traffic victims killed and injured in 2005. The report, the latest ranking available, lists Malibu as the worst out of 104 cities in its population category based on daily vehicle miles traveled. Malibu was also the second worst city for victims killed and injured in alcohol-involved collisions; first in alcohol-involved collisions for drivers age 21 to 34; ninth for bicyclists killed and injured; first in speed-related collisions; and second in nighttime collisions, the report states. Calls to confirm 2006-2008 statistics were not returned by the California Highway Patrol.
Speeding (more than 45 to 50 mph), driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and unsafe turns are the biggest culprits in crashes, Lt. Debra Glafkides, Malibu’s liaison for the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, told The Malibu Times last year.
City Manager Jim Thorsen, in an interview Tuesday, said though Caltrans has complete jurisdiction over state highways, the city has made efforts to improve safety on PCH by installing speed advisory signs two years ago, implementing the traffic signal at the intersection of PCH and Corral Canyon earlier this year, and providing median dividers near Zuma Beach and Geoffrey’s restaurant.
After the June 28 death of cyclist Armas, Thorsen said plans are in the works for a bike path along the highway to be constructed at the west end of Malibu. Additionally, the PCH Safety Task Force has resumed operation after a two-year hiatus. It will hold its next meeting on Jan. 7, 2010 in Santa Monica, at which the public is invited to voice safety concerns.
But due to the plethora of fatal accidents that have occurred this year, many residents are taking safety matters into their own hands.
Actress and Malibu resident Victoria Principal has offered to personally finance the implementation of more “Botts’ dots”-round, raised pavement markers that provide tactile feedback to drivers when they move across designated travel lanes-along one mile of PCH. The dots would be placed on both sides of the yellow lane lines that serve as the highway’s center divider, to help prevent head-on collisions. Currently, only one side of each lane line contains dots.
“Your left-hand tires would have to pass over two Botts’ dots; that’s going to get your attention. It’s pretty hard to miss that double ‘kabump, kabump,’” Principal said Friday in a telephone interview.
Once project construction is complete, “The highway patrol would conduct a three to four month study to see if there’s a reduction of head-on collisions or fatalities,” Principal said.
Though the proposed project is pending approval by Caltrans, the question of where it will be executed remains unanswered. “First we need to figure out statistically what the most dangerous mile [of PCH in Malibu] is,” Principal said.
“World Poker Tour” host Vince Van Patten, a Malibu resident with a 16-year-old son about to get his driver’s license, identified two of the most dangerous areas as the left turn off Portshead Road onto northbound PCH, and the left turn off PCH onto Westward Beach Road.
He recommended traffic signals be installed at both intersections, and volunteered to cut the brush at the Portshead Road intersection to eliminate blind spots. “That would help enormously and I would be happy to do it with my many friends who I’ve talked about this with that all agree with me,” he wrote in a letter to The Malibu Times.
“It would also be beautiful if they could have lower speed limits,” Van Patten said Monday in a telephone interview. “If that can’t happen, maybe some signs that would tell people to slow down.”
Though she supports Principal’s idea, local resident Teri Love said it could be modified to prevent illegal left turns with the implementation of tubular delineators-the approximately three-foot-tall reflectors that are installed on the highway near Geoffrey’s restaurant.
Love’s son Tyler and his friend Keith Naylor, both Malibu High School graduates, were killed in a 2005 crash at the ages of 22. They were riding on a motorcycle driven by Tyler southbound on PCH before plowing into the side of a Mercedes-Benz sedan that made an illegal U-turn across the highway just south of Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades.
Love said she has pleaded with Caltrans to install tubular delineators at the accident site to prevent future crashes but “Caltrans told me not enough deaths happened that year to make it feasible. And when you hear that after losing your son….it’s inexcusable … one death is enough,” she said. “I think about this every second of every day.”
Caltrans spokeswoman Kelly Markham in an interview Monday said citizens’ requests for additional road marks must be deemed “valid concerns” by traffic investigators.
“Anything that poses any kind of a safety threat is acted on as soon as possible,” Markham said. “Because safety, of course, is our number one priority here at Caltrans.”