Malibu’s Top Cop” Tuesday’s Fatals Caused By Speed, And Speed Is #1 Cause Of PCH Carnage – 50+ Miles Of PCH, 50+ Deaths Over 10 Years – Neighbor Calls Malibu Suspect ‘Good Kid’ – Neighborhood Fire Brigades Deal Reached

WHO IS FRASER BOHM?  22 YEAR OLD AT WHEEL OF SPEEDING CAR THAT KILLED 4 PEPPERDINE STUDENTS WALKING ON DANGEROUS PCH

A 22 year old Malibu man is accused by sheriff’s deputies of killing four young women … college seniors in Malibu.

Fraser Bohm was booked for vehicular manslaughter yesterday … but for the time being. 

Another arrest is in his future … once the district attorney has enough information to file charges.

Traffic detectives are tight lipped … they will only say that Fraser Bohm is the target of an open … ongoing investigation. 

Malibu Lost Hills sheriff’s captain Jennifer Seetoo … yesterday ….

NEWSCART A74620 SEETOO NARRATIVE

“Fraser Michael Bohm was driving a dark gray four sedan traveling westbound on Pacific Coast Highway when he lost control of his vehicle and swerved towards the shoulder of the north side of PCH. 

“This caused the suspect vehicle to collide into three parked vehicles and subsequently those vehicles hit for female adults, standing on the side of the roadway, near the parked vehicles.

“The four females were pronounced dead at the scene. The suspect was arrested for vehicle or manslaughter with gross negligence.”

The victims were apparently sorority sisters … each about 21 to 22 years old … at Pepperdine University … 

They may have been walking along PCH to get to a house party at a fraternity house that has set up shop in the La Costa neighborhood.

Their names … Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams.

No hometowns revealed by the school.

Two there people were injured … rushed to hospitals … neither the sheriff’s office nor the school has released any information on their medical conditions. 

What to do?

Seetoo is making a plea for speed cameras … that write tickets automatically.

NEWSCART A74619 SEETOO COMMUNITY

“We’ve got to ask ourselves.  

“We’ve got to work together as a community. 

“There are too many people on the stretch of highway that have been killed”

More than 50 people have been killed on Pacific Coast Highway in the past decade … between the Santa Monica tunnel and the Oxnard strawberry fields.

No one keeps exact count … there are five different police agencies involved.

Half of those deaths … within the City of Malibu.

24 deaths in Malibu over 6 years.

No fewer than 24 deaths within Malibu city limits between 

There have been studies after studies about the road’s dangers … and what to do about them.

In 2016 … the city of Malibu and the regional government prepared a comprehensive traffic safety plan for PCH.

Most of the recommendations were never acted on.

Some … like banning parking on the narrow shoulders at Paradise Cove … got reversed by the Coastal Commission staff … anxious to protect coastal parking. 

Some plans … like widening the shoulder area near Pepperdine and narrowing the center median … have run into budget blowouts.

Some places … like where the four women were killed … have been made even more dangerous.

The new beach access at La Costa Beach was not a factor in the recent carnage … turns out .. the women were likely walking to a nearby fraternity house for a party.

Walking to a house party on a road … built to rural highway standards …  with no sidewalks .. plagued by racing vehicles.

The current PCH roadway was built in 1947 with a 55 mile per hour design speed in eastern Malibu … 65 miles an hour west of Malibu Creek.

Traffic detective Roger Schalkax:

NEWSCART A74616 SCHALKAX

“Like the captain said, all of PCH is a lot pop people driving recklessly. 

“We try our best with our radar units to slow that down.

“But no matter what, people still drive recklessly. And disregard the speed limit unfortunately.

“It’s a lower speed limit out there, so a lot of people don’t like driving that.”

LA County traffic detective Roger Shalkax says the 45 mile an hour speed limit in eastern Malibu may actually encourage some drivers to drive faster … 

 

NEIGHBOR DEFENDS FRASER BOHM AS ‘GOOD KID’

So … who is Fraser Bohm?

His social media indicates that he was a baseball pitcher … for Oaks Christian High School and several club teams.

His Instagram page … filled with various sports heroes and clips of himself pitching at games.

Malibu High School granted him a diploma in 2020 …  from the MHS Independent Study program.

Chris Hansen lives at La Costa … and he knows the suspect.

Hansen was interviewed by KTLA last night. 

NEWSCART A74618 HANSEN

“Last night was an accident, I don’t think it has anything to do with street racing. 

“Obviously, he is at fault from what I understand.

“But he is a good, good kid. And he is very well respected in this community”

Chris Hansen was interviewed by KTLA.

Although Bohm was booked on gross vehicular manslaughter charges … he was released

The district attorney has to file charges based on a. Comprehensive traffic crash study … and blood tests on the driver.

Both of those take time … and the U-S Constitution means that a defendant has to have a probable cause hearing within 48 hours of being formally charged.

Since there is no flight risk … Bohm has been told not to leave town … as those formal charges are drawn up.

At Pepperdine … a prayer vigil last night at the sororities last bnight.

Today at 10 … a campus wide prayer service at the Firestone Filed House.

Bottom line … Jennifer Seetoo.  (TIGHT)

NEWSCART SEETOO COLLISIONS

“Believe me … the number one cause in collisions on PCH by far is speed. 

“It is speed.

“We need people to slow down on PCH. 

“Again – it is a town, it is a college town.”

Seetoo also made a plea for speed enforcement cameras on PCH in Malibu.

But Malibu missed out on that opportunity.

The California legislate passed a bill that allows six cities to test speed cameras for five years.

Malibu made no effort to be added to that list.

And right now … state law does not allow Malibu to use speed cameras. 

 

CALTRANS WORKS OUT KINKS AT TRANCAS, BUT WRONG SIGNS AND LACK OF WARNINGS STILL EVIDENT

Caltrans crews yesterday smoothed out the incredible maze-like detour they had set up two mornings ago … at there Trancas Creek bridge.

The eastbound lanes were flanked with concrete rails that guide the traffic to the left … to the detour that they just set up the day before.

That detour … unmarked with signs … was up just three hours before the first … predictable crash happened. 

City officials demanded that Caltrans get out here to fix it.

Left unfixed … the signs pointing the wrong way.

The lack of signs …

The cluster of signs.

Caltrans is two years late on the project due to embarrassing engineering errors.

With their detour blunder … at least they are showing consistency.

 

SCHOOL SECURITY PLANS TO GO BEFORE SANTA MONCIA BOARD TONIGHT

School security plans go before the Santa Monica school board tonight.

The districts has posed a vague agenda item about school security plans … on tonight’s agenda.

Both the Malibu city council and Malibu High PTSA have voiced unhappiness about not seeing the security plans prepared for Malibu schools.

They want to see a report done by a security consulting firm … on the current school security programs.

Last year … the city of Malibu and school district agreed to hire a company called Guidepost Solutions to analyze and make recommendations.

The report was done last spring.

The non-sensitve portions of it were supposed to have been reviewed by the city and the parents last May.

That has yet to happen.

Kevin Keegan … the Malibu PTSA president … appeared at a city council meeting earlier this month … and agreed that the reports should not be released for general consumption.,

]But Keegan expressed frustration that parent groups and teachers have been left in the dark by district officials in Santa Monica. 

A district spokeswoman told KBUU that the security plans have been made available at school offices.

School security plans for the Malibu schools are a matter of great local concern… Because the four Malibu campuses are so very different in nature than the dozen Santa Monica Malibu school campuses in Santa Monica. That city has a very large municipal police department with dozens of police officers on duty during school hours, within five minutes of any campus, the Santa Monica Police Department does not deal with school issues in Malibu… Nor does the Los Angeles Police Department.

Malibu has about a half dozen church deputies on duty in Malibu during school hours … at most.

Other deputies are on duty over the hill in the cities along the 101 … but they are a half hour away.

And meaningful reinforcements are a very long way away.

 

COUNTY AGREES TO MALIBU FIRE BRIGADES

Neighborhood fire brigades are coming to the Malibu area.

Two days ago … the county board of Supervisors approved an agreement between the county fire department and the nonprofit Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Foundation, which will run the program.

Executives director Brent Woodworth plans to train at least 100 volunteers from Santa Monica Mountains communities early next year,.

They won’t be firefighters.

But they will be trained by the fire department about wildfires, radio protocol and the incident command system.

Mostly … the volunteers will teach their neighbors how to harden their homes … soil that has been fairly well turned in Malibu … which has a vigorous training program like that under the city.

The volunteers will not  be on the front lines of fighting a fire, the volunteers will help evacuate people and then “mop up” after the fire passes.

The Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Foundation is funding the program through private donations.

It will soon start recruiting for two groups of volunteers who will help not only with wildfires but earthquakes, floods and mudslides. 

One group must meet physical fitness requirements and will work in the field. 

The other will help with communications, logistics and education. The volunteers must participate in quarterly training sessions.

Wentworth tells the LA Times that the volunteers will not just be getting credentials. 

“Getting this credentialing is not a get-out-of-jail free card or a free pass to get into critical areas to check on your house,” Woodworth said.

The fire brigade idea came from County Fire Department failures during the Woolsey Fire five years ago,

Independent reports buy the Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Foundation and the LA Times both found that communication and coordination were major issues during the fire. 

The LA Times investigation found that firefighters failed to effectively deploy resources early in the fight, which allowed the blaze to explode when winds picked up late in the evening.