16-Year-Old Malibu Boy Killed Driving Canyon Road To School

It was a student from Malibu … driving to school in the San Fernando Valley … who was killed yesterday in Malibu Canyon.

The CHP says 16 year-old Hunter Langley of Malibu was killed in a rollover crash at about 7:35 Wednesday morning.  He was apparently driving to class at Sierra Canyon High School in Chatsworth.

The CHP says his car for some reason veered to the right and went over the steep edge.  There are no guard rails at that location of the northbound canyon road. 

The car went airborne and tumbled about 30 feet down the embankment. Langley was the only person in the vehicle, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

His schoolmates described him as bright athletic and kind. 

Meanwhile … the LA county coroner has released the name and age of there man who was killed on Pacific coast Highway above Paradise Cove Monday night.

He was 31-year-old Norberto Guevara Jr.

No hometown or address city were released. 

And sheriff’s crash investigators have not released any information about the crash … other than the driver of a car stayed at the scene … was sober … and was cooperating with investigators. 

Caltrans Boss Says Deadly PCH Stretch May Get Safe Walking Areas – Some Day

The director of Caltrans Los Angeles office was in Malibu for an event yesterday.

KBUU news asked Gloria Roberts … we’ve seen at least six pedestrians struck and killed in western Malibu in recent years … four of them just east of Paradise cove … where the shoulder is full of parked cars and people have to walk in the street. 

When are we going to see Caltrans provide a safe place to walk along PCH?

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“So we so we have an upcoming project starting later this year, so I’ll ask her to get back to you there will be …. so I’ll ask our PIO team to get back to you in terms go telling you where sidewalks will be installed.”

KBUU News gently reminded the Caltrans director … there is no sidewalk planned along PCH as part of the upcoming repaving project. 

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“If there is not …we are also following up on where there will be additional projects in the CHP master plan.

“So definitely these areas will be continued to be studied and identified. So obviously that something we’re gonna be working with the city of Malibu and the county given that that’s the main highway, and so we want to do that appropriate localities as well.”

In other words … the dangerous parking and lack of walking area layout of PCH is not going to change anytime soon.

It took nine years for Caltrans and the city to get the latest safety project installed …. The fiber line along PCH that was celebrated yesterday,

How long will it take Caltrans to get city approval … state money … and Coastal Commission buy-in for walking areas along PCH … which may reduce parking?

City Cuts Ribbon On New Traffic Synchronization System

City officials held yet another roadside press extravaganza on the side of PCH Wednesday … this time … to cut the ribbon and pose for pictures somewhere above a 17 million dollar fiber line that links the traffic signals in half the city.

It was another city dog and pony show. 

Politician after politician … city … county … regional … state … legislative … 

Everyone praising the hard work and resolve that got the project from concept to completion in nine years. 

The project will enable Caltrans engineers to reduce the overall speed of traffic con the road … through turning lights red ahead of cars that are driving too fast. 

Once traffic accumulates and is released … the blocks of traffic can be governed by the central computers … located at CHP’s Traffic Management Center in Glendale.

Traffic flow can also be prioritized now in one direction… and the priority can be changed with the click of a mouse in Glendale.

One non government person spoke … Malibu resident Michel Shane.

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“The cost is astronomical and I am not talking about the 19 million dollars (for the fiber line). 

“41 lives during these nine years of planning were lost. 

“62, since Emily was killed back in 2010. 

“62 families are now sitting with empty chairs.

“And this is not on the staff … who did this work on this (fiber) system. That’s on the system. 

“That is  elected officials, the agencies, the process that allows safety improvements to take nearly a decade.”

Yesterday’s ribbon cutting came within 60 hours of a person getting killed on a highway without a place to walk … and another death on a canyon road without guardrails. 

Those deaths were certainly mentioned …. and mourned. 

The fiver optic project will certainly benefit safety …but not in the immediate future.

PCH is so ripped up in eastern Malibu … that the speed detectors and other high tech traffic surveillance tools are not yet in place. 

And traffic … as you only-too-well know … is already significantly slowed in there construction zone.

So How Will The Traffic PCH Computers Work? Slow And Steady

So how will the PCH traffic computers slow down cars?

Once the traffic detectors are all in and functioning, they will feed real time traffic speeds down the new fiber optic line to a Caltrans computer at the Caltrans Traffic Management Center in Glendale. 

The Caltrans computer will measure how fast the big “packs” of traffic are flowing … the blocks of cars that tend to develop …. moving at about the speed limits. 

If the computer detects some traffic moving faster than the pack … it can change signals up ahead to red.  As the pack of traffic approaches … the signal then changes to green. 

The idea is to to keep the traffic bunched together … moving at a steady and controlled speed.  Impatient drivers who snake through the blocks of traffic and speed ahead … they get a red light. 

And when traffic flows smoothly and at the same speed …  there’s less speeding.

And Caltrans has done studies to prove this. 

Similar computer systems exist already in the Bay Area and other cities near San Jose. And they work… as intended … Caltrans officials say.

But they are not yet used in Los Angeles. In fact … this is the first such system that Caltrans District 7 has installed in Los Angeles or Ventura counties. 

Will it work? We don’t know yet.

But the new centralized system also has two other important aspects.

The city and sheriff’s office have the ability to call the traffic center in Glendale and ask them to activate a traffic flushing procedure. 

Let’s say there’s a big reason to move a lot of cars down Pacific Coast Highway … maybe on the Fourth of July or during an evacuation. 

Caltrans now has the ability to change the traffic light timing by remote control to favor one direction.

Also … if a traffic light loses its mind due to a power outage and starts flashing red … now Caltrans can reset the local computer by remote control … without having to send an electrician out from LA to make the change.

County Agency Installing Fiber Up Malibu Canyon, But Will Not Bury Other Lines

A regional government agency is spending 17 million dollars to build a fiber line up Malibu Canyon and back and forth along the 101 freeway area … 

But KBUU News has learned that the project will not include burying the existing five heavy fiber cables that hang on poles along the canyon road. 

This is despite the Southern California Edison effort to bury most of the power lines along Malibu Canyon Road.

The net result will be not one but two undergrounding projects along Malibu Canyon  Road .… both of them only doing part of the job.

The existing heavy fiber cables and their poles will remain up … those are  demonstrated fire evacuation obstacles because they burn … and fall over .. blocking fir e engines/ 

Plus … they are a big car crash danger.

The new fiber project is being constructed by the Las Virgenes-Malibu Council of Governments … it is signing the contracts this week.

38 miles of fiber will connect Malibu City Hall up the canyon to the 101 freeway corridor.

From there … fiber will wind east … around Calabasas neighborhoods … and west … zigzagging around Westlake Village. 

The eventual idea is to attract an internet service provider to hook up Wireless internet service using the fiber backbone. 

But there are four private companies offer the same service … TMobile … Verizon … Charter … Starlink. 

The fiber will also link more than 60 traffic lights … to allow synchronizing them.

But none of those signals will be in Malibu … only over the hill in the 101 corridor.

Eastern Malibu already has its brand new synchronization cable … 17 million dollars for that… turned on yesteday.

Western Malibu … with its 11 traffic lights … will not get connected via either fiber system.

So .. to summarize … the 5 western LA County cities are spending 13 million dollars on a fiber project that will not bury the existng, parallel fiber cables in the mountains … and will not serve any location in Malibu except Malibu City Hall. 

We asked everyone involved … Lindsay Horvath’s office … the city of Malibu … and the guy who runs the Council of Governments … why they are not burying the existing fiber lines in Malibu Canyon … when they dig a 14 mile trench thru the canyon for their new line. 

No one … it seems … had thought of that. 

Bass Fingerprints All Over City Of LA Fire Coverup – LA Times 

It was Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass who watered down the official LA city fire after action report about the Palisades Fire … which burned one tenth of Malibu and killed 7 people here. 

The Los Angeles Times is quoting two people who worked for her.

They tell the newspaper that Bass wanted key findings about the Los Angeles Fire Department’s shortcomings removed or softened.

Bass ordered the department to remove analysis about why they failed to fully staff up and pre-deploy all available engines ahead of the dangerously high winds.

Those winds blew the small Lachman Fire into the monster Palisades Fire … which crossed from the city of L A into Malibu 13 months ago.

Bass told the public she did not have anything to do with the department report getting watered down.

That was not true … say her former employees.

They say Bass herself ordered the edits.

Late yesterday … Bass told KNX Newsradio that the LA Times the story was “absolutely false, 100%.”

Trump Officials Set Up Questionable Website To Bypass Cities If They Delay Rebuild Plan Checks

Trump Officials Set Up Website To Bypass Cities In Fire Rebuild Permitting
In Pacific Palisades yesterday … Trump administration officials vowed to help locals bypass local cities if they feel they are being delayed in getting permits to rebuild houses after the big fires.

And the Trump administration people showed off a way for builders to “self-certify” that they have complied with state and local health and safety standards, if they are using federal emergency funds to rebuild.

The Small Business Administration has been making loans to individuals as part of the disaster recovery process.

People who have taken out SBA loans can use an online site that has already been launched … by the Trump administration. 

The federal site blasts California for supposedly delaying rebuilding efforts. 

There is no provision in the U-S Constitution … or federal law … the allows that. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom fired back.

At a news conference in San Diego … Newsom said “Now (Trump) has signed an executive order that goes into effect, when? We don’t know. Is it legal? Almost certainly not.

“It’s just typical Trump.”

The federal site claims it is available to applicants who have been waiting more than 60 days for a building permit.

The city of Malibu has not been mentioned … to our knowledge … by any of the White House team.

Malibu officials claim they are turning around planning requests in 10 days or less …  bu the planning permits are the preliminary checks to see if a proposed rebuild fits on a lot … 

But then … blueprints have to be checked to see if they comply with tech ical rules about things like septic tanks … wave uprush or landslide prevention.

These highly technical plans that  can take months to prepare … and months to review.

And some Malibu residents say they city is requiring geologic analysis in areas where landslides are simply not an issue.

City officials disagree … and say they share the goal of getting that analysis done quickly. 

But they say it is a matter of public safety … and allowing self certification could lead to shady shortcuts.

The problem for Trump is  … enforcing planning and zoning issues has never ever been a matter of federal jurisdiction. 

The only power the feds have is to cut off federal disaster funds to the entire state … which Trump by the way has already done. 

LA County county supervisor Kathryn Barger – a Republican – says it’s not the permits that are delaying reconstruction.

It’s the insurance companies withholding payments that are due to fire victims.

And the White House …. Which is sitting on 33 billions dollars in disaster relief money due to California.

Temps Hit 87 At Beaches Yesterday

Unofficial records show the highest temperatures of the past 12 months hit the Malibu coast yesterday.

87 degrees for a high at Leo Carrillo Beach.

And the overnight lows???

Try 78 degrees at 4am at Latigo Shore. 

The National Weather Service is calling for continued hot temperatures … and locally gusty Santa Ana winds will continue today. 

Cooler temperatures are expected Friday and over the weekend … but highs will still be at least 4-to-8 degrees above normal. 

There will be a chance of rain by next Tuesday.

But that storm looks like it is pooping out. 

Station Is Under Repair

The KBUU Newscasts and Newswire has been delayed this week, due to some major remodeling and improvements being undertaken in the studio.

Our 45-year-old analog audio equipment is being replaced by digital equipment, a major demolition and reconstruction effort.

We hope to be back to normal operations any year now.