Drivers swerving out of control, smashing into parked or traveling cars and knocking down power poles seems to be a daily occurrence in Malibu lately.
Four cars traveling on Pacific Coast Highway in the Carbon Beach area slammed into each other like tumbling dominos on Tuesday morning, injuring three people, including a child. A BMW had stopped for a crossing pedestrian and was rear-ended by a pickup truck.
According to Dep. Doug Duvall of the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, “The BMW shot across traffic, clipped a car in the oncoming traffic lane and then hit a parked car.”
After it hit the BMW, “the pickup truck careened into a parked trailer and knocked the trailer into traffic.”
Traffic on PCH encountered yet another delay after an accident occurred in the late afternoon on Saturday, while beachgoers and residents crowded local beaches.
Two people were injured and traffic was backed up significantly when a vehicle hit a telephone pole between Rambla Vista and Carbon Canyon.
“A person in a van apparently drifted off the road and smashed into a telephone pole,” said Duvall. “Deputies arrived to find two people injured at the scene.”
However, the identity of the driver is not yet known. “At this time they are still determining who the driver was,” said Duvall.
After the accident, the power lines were deactivated for a while, and although Duvall said the accident was cleared in about 45 minutes, traffic was delayed for several hours on PCH, according to witnesses.
Another injury accident occurred Aug. 13 on PCH at Topanga Canyon during morning rush hour, when a driver careened headlong into a power pole and then into a parked car. On the same day, a cement truck overturned on Stunt Road, downing power lines for much of the afternoon. In yet a third incident that day, a driver crashed into a power pole on Kanan Dume Road at Castle View Drive, which fell into the road. Southbound traffic was diverted into northbound lanes and it was midnight before all lanes were open again.