Fatality, Two Collisions Close Lanes on PCH

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A GMC pickup truck hit a parked Honda Civic, killing the male driver, and then flipped over and slid into a second parked vehicle.

Dewayne Lawrence Coleman, 47, a rapper in the ‘90s known by his stage name MC Supreme, was killed over the weekend in Malibu when a pickup truck driven by Philip Thomas Torres II hit Coleman’s parked Honda Civic on Pacific Coast Highway at Corral Canyon Road. 

At 6:22 a.m. on Saturday, June 13, authorities with the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station and the Los Angeles County Fire Department responded to the collision, according to Deputy Rod Loughridge of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station. 

When deputies arrived at the scene, a full-size GMC pickup truck was found overturned, according  to an alert sent from the station. The truck had been traveling eastbound on PCH and hit the parked Civic, killing Coleman, who was sitting in the driver’s seat. An unidentified adult female sitting in the Civic’s passenger’s seat was transported via ambulance to a local hospital  with non-life threatening injuries.

Upon impact with the Civic, Torres’ pickup flipped over and slid into another parked vehicle, a GMC Sierra pickup. A male adult was in the driver’s seat and a female minor was in the passenger seat of the GMC Sierra; neither sustained any injuries.

Torres sustained minor injuries, according to the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.

Following the collision, both eastbound lanes were shut down, and by 11 a.m., “westbound lanes were open and one eastbound lane was open,” according to Deputy Loughridge. All lanes of PCH were reopened around noon on Saturday.

Torres, a 34-year-old male from Oxnard, was arrested and booked on one charge of vehicular manslaughter and suspicion of driving under the influence at the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station. The station is still waiting on results from blood tests to determine whether or not Torres was under the influence at the time of the collision, according to Sgt. Johnson. 

Torres was the only person arrested from the early morning collisions.

“Just the one,” Sgt. Hill of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station said. “Everyone else involved was in parked vehicles.”

The fatal collision happened less than two weeks after a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle and killed near Busch Drive on PCH at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2. The name of the male pedestrian has not yet been released, pending identification by relatives.

“The driver and passenger [from the vehicle] stayed at the scene of the accident and attempted to render aid,” Lt. Lecrivain with the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station said. Both directions of PCH were closed following the collision, and the highway was fully accessible before 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

Topanga Canyon crashes

The day after Saturday’s fatality, two separate collisions closed westbound lanes of PCH at Topanga Canyon Boulevard late afternoon on Sunday, June 14. Two victims were airlifted from the scene, according to Lt. Jim Royal of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.

Around 4 p.m., deputies responded to the scene of a vehicle collision involving a motorcycle heading west on PCH.

Less than five minutes later, another accident was reported involving a vehicle and a cyclist near the initial collision.

“It’s odd that they happened within 100 yards of each other,” said Captain Ron Horetski of Los Angeles County Fire Department Station 70. 

Two victims were reportedly injured and airlifted from Topanga State Beach to local hospitals by the Los Angeles County Fire Department Air Operations.

“The motorcyclist and the cyclist were both injured,” Horetski said. “They were supposed to go to UCLA, but went to different facilities with unknown injuries.” 

Both westbound lanes of PCH heading into Malibu were closed and traffic was rerouted around the scene.

Additional assistance was provided by the California Highway Patrol.

By 5 p.m., both lanes were reopened and traffic delays subsided around 5:30 p.m.