Mother of teen killed on Malibu Canyon Road calls for immediate guardrail installation
By Barbara Burke · Tue Jul 28 2026
Following the death of 16-year-old Hunter Langley, advocates and family members urge Los Angeles County to accelerate long-delayed safety improvements
Hunter Austin Langley’s mother wants everyone to know that the installation of guardrails on Malibu Canyon Road is critically needed ... now! On Feb. 4, Hunter, 16, was pronounced dead at the scene after his car went airborne as he drove on Malibu Canyon Road at mile marker 3.30, and the vehicle plummeted approximately 30 feet down an embankment.
“Hunter’s car went over the cliff between 1:31 and 1:47 a.m.,” His grieving mother, Carla Langley, stated. “It was pitch black on the canyon — three lights were out! I personally went to the scene and I have a video with the lights out.”
Law enforcement officers found Hunter and pronounced him dead at 7:50 a.m. Langley added.
Langley demands that Los Angeles County install guardrails. In a change.org petition, she states, “In a matter of moments, my family was forever changed. Hunter was not only just a name or a statistic. He was a loving son, twin brother, a brother of his siblings, a proud uncle, an athlete, and a young man with an entire future ahead of him. Every day, I live with the heartbreak of knowing Hunter will never pursue his dreams.”
The need for guardrails is urgent!
Noting that more than 35,000 vehicles use Malibu Canyon Road monthly, Langley maintains that an absence of adequate guardrails and proper lighting makes driving on the road perilous, especially for newer or inexperienced drivers.
“The need for guardrails is urgent,” Langley notes. “According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, guardrails are estimated to reduce the severity of crashes and significantly decrease fatalities. Implementing those safety measures would significantly lower the chance of accidents like Hunter’s happening to another family.”
Langley also stated that a California Highway Patrol officer with whom she met after Hunter’s accident at the scene told her that if a guardrail had been installed at the point where Hunter’s car left the road, he most likely would have lived.
A protest and a plea
Langley is organized a peaceful protest, on June 27 at Pepperdine University on the northwest corner of Malibu Canyon Road and Pacific Coast Highway. The flyer announcing the protest emphatically states, “The guardrail ends. The road doesn’t. The drop is deadly!” Carla noted that Hunter’s father, Scott Langley, is a Pepperdine alumnus, and she hopes such a gathering will press LA County to install proper lighting and guardrails as soon as possible.
Langley stated, “The City of Malibu has been unbelievably supportive, offering me kindness and love and I feel there is a partnership between myself and the Malibu community, including the mayor, councilpersons and staff persons.”
Langley opined that, “LA County has been on notice for 15 years about the problems caused by a lack of adequate guardrails. In 2013, two people plummeted to their death.” Langley also noted that on Sept. 24, 2022, Pepperdine University student Connor Michael Budge was killed in a car accident on Mulholland Highway, near Las Virgenes Road. She also stated that in 2024, there was another person killed who plummeted off Malibu Canyon Road.
With extreme grief and frustration, Langley queried, “How many have to lose their lives before the county does something?"
However, Langley stated, “The City of Malibu has been unbelievably supportive, offering me kindness and love, and I feel there is a partnership between myself and the Malibu community, including the mayor, councilpersons, and staff persons.”
Traffic safety advocate Meril May chimes in
Malibu Canyon Road is a local roadway under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles County Public Works Department, with some sections of the road maintained by the City of Malibu. If one googles “how much do K-rails and guardrails cost?” and “how much does the Los Angeles County Public Works Department pay for K-rails and guardrails?” one learns that guardrails and K-rails are not too expensive.
According to various public records, after the agency computes initial construction costs, the profile of concrete planned for a project, material purchasing costs, and the project site, Caltrans pays an average of $75 to $125 per linear foot to furnish and install K-rails or guardrails, although the price fluctuates based on the contract size, project location, and any specific site preparation requirements.
That is not so much for the agency to spend when its doing so could have arguably saved lives in the past, including that of 16-year-old Hunter Langley. Many in Malibu have been pleading for the installation of guardrails and K-rails along the often treacherous canyon road.
One tireless guardrail advocate is Meril May, who discussed his efforts over the years to get guardrails and proper lighting installed along Malibu Canyon Road. May is a member of Safe Canyons and serves as a public safety commissioner for the City of Malibu.
“We still have no K-rails at the latest two fatality sites.” May lamented. “I requested additional K-rails to the north of the 2.32-mile marker, prior to one fatality, and now with the other fatality, by the 3.30-mile marker. There was a large guardrail project that was supposed to be done last year, which was not done. Needless to say, the most necessary action is not being done.” May sent authorities a request for immediate placement of K-rails in the two areas, and urged that the county “expedite the expansion of K-rails, guard rails and large rock positioning to provide barriers from going over the edge.
May also noted “there are several signs which have not been replaced from the Woolsey Fire, and white markers with reflective tape to indicate the sides of the road should be installed to increase safety.” He also admonished county officials, stating, “There is also guard rail damage and missing chevrons through Malibu Canyon.” He also recommended that the county “optimize surface markings, fog and center lines and reflective devices.” Further, he noted, “In addition to keeping vehicles from going over the edges and resulting in injuries and fatalities, a lack of protective devices such as K-rails and guardrails can fire ignition which is very important to avoid.”
Concluding, May implored, “Let’s please get some work done as soon as possible. Summer crowds are approaching, but regardless, the urgency exists.”
No one seems to know why the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works did not install guardrails along Malibu Canyon Road after the Board of Supervisors approved a project entitled, “Construction Contract Transportation Core Service Area, Adopt, Advertise, and Award Project ID. No. THR0000019 — Malibu Canyon Road North of Mile Marker 2.32- Guardrail Project in the Unincorporated County Area North of the City of Malibu (Supervisorial District 3). The project was adopted on April 9, 2024.
“It’s extremely frustrating that the county adopts a project, approves it, but then sometimes, for some unknown reason, does not execute it, only to later claim that yet another study about the need for the project is necessary, resulting in extreme delay in addressing the safety issue,” May opined. “We don’t need another study - just put the guardrails in! It’s so simple and so easy and they could also install proper reflective posts on the side of Malibu Canyon Road — they could do that easily within a day!”
No one seems to know why the guardrails were not installed per the contract approved in 2024. However, Carla Langley, as advised by California Highway Patrol, knows one thing too tragically well — that most likely, Hunter would not have died on Feb. 4, if guardrails, K-rails, or other protective devices had been present.
Langley noted that Hunter did not sharply turn and plummet off the canyon road. Rather, forensics demonstrate that he was driving along the road and simply drove off into the canyon, perhaps because there was not a protective device or adequately-lit signs to guide him concerning the presence of Malibu Canyon Road.
The county is now planning to address the issue of K-rails and guardrails along Malibu Road
Justin Orenstein, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath’s Director of Infrastructure and Community Services, assisted by Zach Gaidzick, Supervisor Horvath’s Coastal and Westside field deputy out of the Metro/West District Office, noted that their team has been working with the County Department of Public Works on a host of safety-related efforts at the locations where the two most recent fatalities occurred and throughout all of Malibu Canyon.
“Public Works is recommending installations of K-rails near Milemarker 3.30, which is expected to be installed by June 12.” Orenstein advised. “Public Works is also finalizing the traffic control modification for the K-rail near Milemarker 2.32 and expect to complete those by June 17, with installation to follow shortly after that.”
Moreover, Orenstein stated, “I’m also happy to report that Public Works was able to value-engineer the proposed permanent guardrail installation that was planned just north of Milemarker 3.30 to include the full stretch of the roadway through Milemarker 3.30. We are still waiting on bid confirmation and a construction timeline, but we anticipate project completion before the end of 2027.”
Orenstein also informed that, “With regard to an overall Corridor Safety Study for Malibu Canyon Road, Public Works anticipates submitting the notice to proceed by July 1 and the study to be completed by the end of the year. This study will give us a better sense of the locations most in need of mitigations and infrastructure needs throughout the corridor and will form the basis for future project design and grant funding requests.”