Another Crash Where People Park For Trail Access On PCH

A nasty crash this morning at a trailhead parking area on PCH near Malibu. 

A car slammed into a line of cars parked on the side of the road … near the Chumash Trail trailhead just west of Mugu Rock.

That’s the popular hiking area … across the highway from the rifle range at the Naval Station.

Several people were trapped in their vehicles … according to the California Highway Patrol. 

A white Ford Econoline van had major front end damage.

A black Ford Mustang had moderate rear end damage.

Speed limit … 55 … despite concentrations of roadside parking and hikers there every day. 

This comes as Caltrans faces criticism in Malibu … for allowing very high speeds limits at beaches and trailheads with heavy pedestrian traffic. 

The state Transportation Department says their hands are tied .. and they cannot reduce speed limits due to an anti speed trap law.

But some city officials point out other new laws that specifically allow speed limits to be reduced under unusual circumstances. 

Like … for example … a concentration of beachgoers or hikers parking their cars along … and scampering across a highway with a very high speed limit.

Speeding Car Hits Row Of Parked Vehicles Near Roundabout Location

As many as eight parked cars were hit by one speeding motorist’s car on Pacific Coast Highway yesterday … 

This was just up the road from where a series of speed-reducing roundabouts and lane reductions have been proposed. 

Sheriff’s deputies say that a stolen car crashed into parked cars near Nicholas Beach.  

No injuries were reported. 

The suspect was last seen riding a bicycle towards Point Mugu.

City Of LA Repairing Damaged Wooden Supports Above PCH In Palisades

It’s been fourteen months since the Palisades Fire destroyed the wooden supports under several City of Los Angeles streets high above pacific coast Highway … 

And now … the City of L-A has begun major construction to prevent these streets  from falling down … several of them right above PCH Highway 1.

Motorists may have spotted the wreckage of the burned out wooden supports that used to support Posetano Road.

The 100 year old wooden road embankment burned in the Palisades Fire. 

Not much has been holding up the road ever since. 

5.7 million collars is being spent by the City of Los Angeles on projects to prevent city streets in the Castellamare neighborhood from falling.

This week … major work is underway high above PCH on Posetano Road …

L A city council member Traci Parks told the Palisades News website that “This work is restoring critical lateral support lost in last year’s fires to keep the road — and the homes above it — secure,”

Caltrahs Spending Huge Money On Massive Projects To Protect PCH

Below that … Caltrans continues work on at least six emergency construction repair orders in the Palisades Fire Recovery Work Zone on PCH.

Repair and restoration work started at most locations last summer … and now is underway.

Six different projects … totaling 79 million dollars in costs … are underway right now. 

A 460-foot long section of steel beams and concrete barriers is nearing completion on the cliffs above PCH at one location .. just east of Big Rock Drive.

That’s a 17 million dollar project.

On the other side of the road. … a project to remove a sea wall that has rusted and fallen apart … endangering the road from surf.

That’s 9 million dollars.

At the Getty Villa …a huge white wall … 710 feet long … Is nearing completion. 

Current work involves installing and spraying wall panels with a fire-protective coating after the wall is installed.

$10 million there.

The state is also working on the Porto Marina and Tarmonto landslides … between the Getty Museum and Sunset. 

Remaining to be done: landslide analysis and study in Castellammare area.

And repairing storm and fire damage on a retaining wall near Porto Marina Way.

8.4 million there. 

Plus … a new debris flow net at the Big Rock channel.  

At least $6.8 million there … and most work will be complete by this summer.

But the biggest problem … money wise … remains the Tramonto landslide … above the pedestrian bridge on PCH at Porto Marina.  

Tramonto is the name of the street that collapsed onto PCH more than 50 years ago.

It took down 6 or 8 houses back then… that debris is still sliding towards the highway.

One additional house slid down in the last 5 years.

Private landowners and the City of Los Angeles own that land … inching towards the highway to Malibu every week.

One lane has already been lost … and the remaining four lanes are in jeopardy between  Coastline Drive and Sunset Boulevard.

As many as nine retraining walls may need to be build on the side of that mountain … 

The engineering costs alone … for that massive future project… may top one billion dollars … according to the project manager. 

Candace Bond Honored For Stepping Up During Malibu’s Days Of Need

Candace Bond was honored by the Malibu city council Monday night. 

She had just retired from being the United States ambassador to several Caribbean Island nations … and returned home to Malibu …. whne Malibu needed her.

The city was floundering without a city manager … and needed some temporary leadership while the fractured city council searched for a permanent executive.

Bond was asked to be the temporary chief executive officer.

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“You know when I stepped in as interim city manager I did so with a full heart and a sense of duty to the city of Malibu.”

Candace Bond was thanked by the city Monday night. 

In her goodbye statement … she said she knew she was getting into a tough job. 

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“It wasn’t because the circumstances were gonna be easy, but precisely because they were not .

“I mean, I think the one thing that unites all of us from now is that in times of tragedy and despair and destruction, we come together, and we look forward to building a better and brighter future.”

Ambassador Candace Bond returns now to private life in Malibu.

She jokingly thanked her husband Monday night for talking her out of moving to France.

Full Fleet Of 4 VOP Cars Now Available In Malibu

Malibu is finally able to put four cars staffed by volunteers on patrol units on the streets.

The uniformed volunteer patrol officers are under the close training and supervision of the LA County sheriff’s office.

They provide critical backup and support functions … and can issue parking tickets.

Their patrol cars have occasionally been hit by inattentive motorists while performing emergency work at traffic crashes or other emergencies.

The VOPs provide the people of malibu with hundreds of hours of volunteer work each month. 

And last Saturday .. they finally took possession and use of a fourth marked vehicle.

They posted on social media: “Now we need more volunteers to drive them!” 

Woman, 46, Killed By Rattlesnake In Thousand Oaks

A 46-year-old woman has been killed by a rattlesnake in Thousand Oaks.

No details were released about how she encountered the snake … but it happened in wild area north of the city of Thousand Oaks. 

The woman was bitten by the snake March 14thtewo Saturdays ago in the Wildwood Regional Park area in Thousand Oaks … the Ventura Medical Examiner’s Office said.

Immediately after the bite … firefighters flew her to a hospital for treatment. 

Let Friday … a teenaged girl was bitten by a snake after she fell off her mountain bike on a trial near Wendy Drive in the Santa Monica Mountains. 

The girl is OK.

In Orange County this spring … a 25-year-old man was killed by a snake.

in early March due to a bite sustained while mountain biking in February in Irvine.

About 10 people a year doe from rattlesnakes in the US.

Estimates are that about 8,000 people per year are bitten by venomous snakes.

Chevron Will Buy Crude From Sketchy Texas Oil Company In Ocean Above Malibu

The war in the Middle East has prompted Chevron to buy oil from the leaky system of pipeline and offshore oil platforms just up the coast from Malibu.

Sable Offshore Oil will sell 20 thousand barrels of crude oil per day to Chevron … th former California company that has just moved its headquarters to Texas.

Oil from the ocean floor will be piped on the same corroded … old pipeline that broke 10 years ago … spilling oil into the ocean that floated as far south as Malibu.

The thick crude will be heated … and then pumped under high pressure up the 101 to near Santa Maria … then east to a pipeline junction near Bakersfield.

From there … it will flow thru the underground network of pipes over the Grapevine and down Sepulveda Boulevard to El Segundo.

That’s where Chevron operates its oil refinery at El Segundo … just south of LAX.

That supply of Santa Barbara crude equals just one percent of the refinery capacity in the entire state. 

A spokesman for Chevron tells the Houston Chronicle that the decision to buy from Sable was the result of a severe supply shortage stemming from the war in Iran and California’s tough restrictions on oil production.

A Chevron flack said “California just doesn’t have enough fuel and it doesn’t have enough product over the next few months.”

Chevron calls this an emergency.

It supplies nearly half of the jet fuel used in California. 

Chevron thus enters the major political battle over west coast drilling … between California and President Donald Trump’s team.

A leak from the pipeline in 2015 caused one of the worst oil spills in California’s history, dumping more than 140,000 gallons of oil and killing marine wildlife. 

The company has unsuccessfully sought permits for the pipeline, platforms, and processing facility since it purchased from Exxon Mobil in 2024.

Sable is also fending off shareholder lawsuits and insider trading allegations.

The companny is relying on an executive order from Preside trump … and is ignoring an order from a federal judge not to resume pumping oil out of the Santa Barbara area via the leaky pipeline.