After 4 students killed, Malibu seeks safety answers for part of PCH; driver taken into custody

MALIBU » Following the deaths of four Pepperdine University students in a high-speed collision on Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu city officials on Tuesday were weighing the possibility of enacting a local state of emergency to allow for immediate speedreduction measures on the treacherous roadway.

Meanwhile, the driver in the crash was arrested again Tuesday, a week after his initial arrest at the scene of the crash.

“How many more deaths before something is done?” one tearful resident told the Malibu City Council during a meeting Monday night that featured more than two dozen people calling for action to improve safety on a stretch of road many refer to as “Dead Man's Curve.”

“This is truly a time of mourning and it is also a time for action,” County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath told the council. “Safety along the 21-mile stretch of Pacific Coast Highway has been a problem for far too long. As your L.A. County Supervisor, I am committed to identifying and implementing solutions in partnership with all of you in the city and with our state agencies. … We will not let the boundaries of government bureaucracy be the reason we do not take action. We will bring everyone together to find and implement real solutions.”

Horvath said she has been in touch with state transportation officials and is calling on Caltrans to do what can be done immediately to reduce speed limits on the highway while also bolstering California Highway Patrol enforcement.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Capt. Jennifer Seeto of the Malibu-Lost Hills Station, told the council deputies will have a greater presence on the roadway. She said she is committed to “the three E's” — education, enforcement and engineering.

Fraser Michael Bohm, 22, of Malibu, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of murder, with bail set at $8 million, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Bohm was initially taken into custody last week on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. Jail records show he was released from custody last Wednesday.

Bohm was released “to allow detectives time to gather the evidence needed to secure the strongest criminal filing and conviction,” according to a statement from the department.

The Oct. 17 crash in the 21600 block of PCH killed four Pepperdine students — Niamh Rolston, 20; Peyton Stewart, 21; Asha Weir, 21; and Deslyn Williams, 21, all seniors at Pepperdine's Seaver College of Liberal Arts.

Sheriff's officials said the four women were standing or walking along PCH when an allegedly speeding motorist lost control of his car and slammed into at least three vehicles parked on the north side of the roadway. Those parked vehicles subsequently struck the four women, leaving them dead at the scene.

During Monday night's meeting, the Malibu City Council directed its staff to prepare a report on conditions on PCH and a possible declaration of a local emergency, which would allow the use of local resources to implement safety measures.

Some speakers at Monday's meeting also called for an expansion of a newly approved state pilot program allowing the installation of speed cameras in select communities. The legislation that authorized that pilot program called for the cameras to be installed only in limited numbers in the cities of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Glendale, Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose.