Hit And Run Driver Causes Head-On, Flees Into Darkness At Big Rock

A hit and run driver got away last night … after causing a four car crash on Pacific Coast Highway.

The driver may have been injured in the crash … according to deputies.

The man may have been hiding from sheriff’s deputies in the rocks … below houses along PCH last night.

Or in brush near Big Rock Drive.

Deputies brought in a search and rescue team to look for the suspect … but were not successful.

PCH was closed to westbound traffic for about two hours.

Eastbound traffic was also blocked for part of that time,

On the pavement … four damaged cars.

At least one of them was demolished … it’s front quarter coming to rest across the highway from the rest of the vehicle.

The head-on crash was at about 6:40 last night … in the big curve just past the Big Rock signal … heading westbound.

Several people were hurt … but no one seriously.

Both westbound lanes were blocked for more than an hour …

Even after that … a search and rescue team was being brought in to look for someone … possibly hiding in the rocks under the houses on the narrow stretch of sand and rocks.

The search was not successful.

Silverstein Proposes 25 MPH Speed Limit On PCH In Eastern Malibu, 35 or 40 In Wide Open Spaces, Dares State To Sue CityOver Proposed Malibu Takeover

A road takeover in Malibu???

Two city council members are urging that Malibu take over control of Pacific Coast Highway … and bypass Caltrans .. the state highway department that actually owns the street.

Among proposals from Bruce Silverstein … the city should set a 25 mile per hour speed limit where there are houses or businesses along PCH.

Raise that to 35 or 40 in open stretches of the highway.

And Silverstein wants the city to impose a nighttime curfew … nobody can drive on PCH in the City unless they abide by emergency speed limits set by the City of Malibu.

Also … they must stop at emergency stop signs posted by the City of Malibu …

Silverstein wants the city to add temporary pedestrian crosswalks … and to prohibit pedestrians from crossing PCH in areas that are not designated for pedestrians.

Silverstein wants speed bumps on PCH in certain places.

He wants to narrow the width of lanes with either concrete rails or plastic poles.

And Silverstein wants the city to close some lanes from time to time and place to place, leaving only one lane for traffic flowing in a given direction.

City officials point out that state law is clear … PCH is state highway 1 … the state owns it … the state controls it …

Although all five city council members support major changes to PCH … three of them wanted to see what Caltrans would come up with … to see if they would follow throu8gh on their promise for immediate action.

But … as KBUU has reported … Caltrans has proposed almost nothing to reduce speeds in the 10 weeks since four Pepperdine women were run over and killed on PCH …

Additional cops have been brought in … some of them at local expense … and some radar signs have been parked along the road.

Only 2 and a half miles of PCH have even been surveyed by the state … for changes.

City council members Bruce Silverstein and Steve Uhring say the city should take over the project … and implement immediate traffic calming measures.

Silverstein has authored a 14 page legal treatise … and is all but daring the state to sue Malibu for taking over the state highway.

Silverstein has heard from three other city council members that his traffic calming measures are meaningless if the L.A. Sheriff’s Department and California Highway Patrol will not enforce them.

Silverstein says some of his traffic calming measures will reduce speeding without regard to enforcement.

And if the sheriff’s office and CHP will not enforce Malibu’s speed limits … Silverstein suggests a solution.

Sue them.

And Silverstein says he would love to see Caltrans sue Malibu if the city lowers th speed limit and takes other steps on its own.

Says he:

“The press will have a field-day covering CalTrans’ interference with Malibu’s efforts to make PCH safe.”

 

Caltrans Adds Fire Patrols Under 10 Freeway Hours Before Fire Breaks Out Under Freeway

In Los Angeles yesterday … Caltrans announced it will add safety patrols to prevent fires under freeway bridges in Los Angeles …

Hour later … last night … another fire was set under the 10 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles.

This fire was put out before it could spread to the wooden supports that are carrying the elevated section of the freeway  … while permanent repairs are underway.

The worry is … that the freeway could once again be damaged and closed.

It was just under five weeks ago when somebody set a fire at vacant lot owned by Caltrans and leased out to a Calabasas-based construction company.

The company was accused of violating its lease and storing massive piles of wood … hundreds of cases of flammable liquid .. and other burnable items.

Eviction lawsuits continue … with a hearing next month.

Last night’s fire was next to the freeway … at 15th Street … where wooden supports were just a few feet aware.

Caltrans has brought in CHP officers … and private security guards … to patrol the wooden supports.

The freeway remains open.

Gov Announces Details On Converting Westside Pavilion Into ‘UCLA Research Park’

More details were released Wednesday when the governor went to the Westside Pavilion.

The abandoned shopping mall … leaping over Westwood Boulevard at Pico … is destined to become the UCLA Research Center … and house UCLA Research Park postgrad research offices and labs.

One will focus on immunology and immunotherapy … one will focus on quantum science and engineering.

The movie theaters???

Lecture halls.

The former owners … Macerich and Hudson Pacific Properties … will take a financial bath in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

They had been rebuilding the giant structure into an office building … Google was going to be a tenant … then the pandemic hit.

The state is snapping up the property for 700 million dollars … a fraction of what it would cost to bold a similar facility in LA.

And in 40 months … UCLA Research Park will open.

Billionaire financial tycoons Michael Milken and Gary Michelson have helped fund the project … but 200 million is coming from UCLA.

There will be space for private companies to set up ventures … what Michelson calls a Michelson has talked about his desire to build a “Field of Dreams” research center with 500 scientists or more.

The institute will operate as an independent nonprofit and be funded by a public-private partnership.

UCLA will appoint four of the 11 members of the institute’s board.

The immunology center is expected to produce drugs and treatments in the rapidly-growing field.

One new drug alone generated more than $20 billion in worldwide sales last year.

The five year old UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering will also locate to the former mall.

The UCLA Research Center is set to open in the summer of 2027.

This side note … there is no mention if the quantum scientists will have to deal with the parking garage from hell … the notorious Westside Pavilion parking garage that flummoxed westside drivers for 40 years.

Beloved Malibu Coach Regencé Humphrey Dies At 54

Funeral services are pending for a man described as one of the friendliest people ever at Malibu High School.

Regence Humphrey … coach Ray Humphrey to everyone … died suddenly last week.

He was only 53 years old.

Ray Humphrey coached from for 8 years … before coming to Malibu High School.

Here … he coached football, basketball and track

Principal Patrick Miller called Humphrey “a staple, one of the greats.”

He worked dayside as a paraeducator and then as Instructional Assistant.

In more recent years, Ray has been coaching and working full time at Brentwood School.

Various tributes are being shared on social media, as the Malibu High principal says Humphrey lived a life of impact.

“Ive never known a person who gave more to kids,”

“best person and track coach”

“man of integrity” “genuinely cared” “best coach I ever had” “inspired, uplifted, and encouraged everyone who knew him.”

Coach Ray Humphrey was 53.

No services have been announced yet.

Orcas Blow Bloody Dolphin Chunks Near Whale Watching Cruise

Whale watching boats not far from Malibu are now seeing orcas … formerly called killer whales … from the waters far away.

It’s not all that unusual for a pod of orcas to make its way south from the waters off San Francisco or Monterey.

But these whales are from off Panama and Mexico.

Whale watching boats out of Ventura, have spotted the tro[ical orcas just off the Naval Base near Point Mugu,

Similar whales … maybe the same ones … were spotted last week … off Orange County and then off San Pedro.

Some of the orcas have been spotted hunting down food … a baby whale and its mother we’re attacked last week.

Dolphins have also been chased down and eaten in front of whale watching boats.

One orca was quite close to a whale watching boat when it blew chunks of dolphin and blood and mucus out of its blowhole… very close to the boat.

Scientists are not sure … but they think that the whales are this far north because of unusually warm water off the Southern California Coast.

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Surf forecast:

Today head high to couple feet overhead

Tomorrow double overhead at west facing

Sunday … questionable due to wind … 2-4 feet overhead at west facing beaches.