[Update: 11:45 p.m.] Traffic was running normally on Pacific Coast Highway following an earlier closure.
[Update: 9:15 a.m.] One lane of eastbound Pacific Coast Highway at Moonshadows was open as of 9:15 a.m. Thursday. Westbound traffic was still blocked at Topanga Canyon, according to Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station officials.
An early-morning crash had all lanes closed for hours as emergency personnel worked to free a driver from his pickup after it crashed into a parked tractor trailer.
“Crews are attempting to clear wreckage,” Lieutenant Winslow said.
[Update: 8:25 a.m.] A full closure of Pacific Coast Highway was in effect from Topanga Canyon Boulevard to Cross Creek Road as of 8:25 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 18, following a single-vehicle crash near Moonshadows.
The driver of the vehicle was expected to be airlifted to a local hospital around 8:30 a.m., Lieutenant Winslow of the Malib/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station reported.
“They are getting the driver out of the vehicle now. We are anticipating an airlift,” Winslow told The Malibu Times at 8:25 a.m.
Winslow also provided more details of the crash.
Before dawn, a pickup truck with a driver and no passengers traveling on PCH struck a parked tractor trailer hauling two trailers containing 18 tons of gravel. “The rear trailer is inoperable,” Winslow explained, though a specialized tow truck was expected to arrive at about 8:45 a.m.
Traffic in the area remained snarled, with backups up Malibu Canyon to the west and past Sunset Boulevard to the east.
All lanes of Pacific Coast Highway in Eastern Malibu near Moonshadows were closed Thursday morning, Aug. 18, due to a traffic collision. As of 7:30 a.m. Thursday, the closure was in effect.
“We’re trying to get people to use canyon roads [to avoid the closure],” reported Lieutenant Winslow of the Malib/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.
Winslow reported that there was no official word as to injuries, as emergency personnel were “still extracting,” as of 7:30, though the call came in at 5:39 a.m. Thursday.
The accident involved a vehicle striking a parked tractor trailer in the center median. The tractor was hauling two trailers of gravel, and the gravel was also a factor in the road closure, Winslow reported.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.