One of the world’s most scenic tourist routes has been branded “Blood Alley” by angry locals after more than fifty road deaths in the past decade.
Residents are demanding new safety measures on a 21-mile stretch of California’s famous Pacific Coast Highway that runs through the millionaires’ playground of Malibu.
Their call follows another shocking accident, in which four female university students walking along the narrow two-lane highway were mown down and killed by a speeding driver who now faces a string of charges including vehicular manslaughter.
The fatalities took the ten-year death toll to 53 on a particularly picturesque stretch of the 656-mile PCH that has featured in numerous films, TV shows and commercials and is flanked by sheer cliffs on one side and oceanside celebrity homes on the other.
Residents now want Malibu City Council to lower the speed limit, install cameras, build roadside pavements or pedestrian bridges and increase the number of California Highway Patrol officers in an area that averages more than 400 traffic collisions a year.
Ironically, their demands come as a new documentary – 21 Miles in Malibu – claims that the thoroughfare has not changed or been upgraded since the 1950s and still attracts young drivers determined to “show off” by racing along it.
The documentary, which is being presented at film festivals in the US, was made by Catch Me If You Can producer Michael Shane, whose own daughter Emily, 13, was mowed down and killed in 2010 by a wildly speeding driver who was subsequently convicted of seconds-degree murder.
He said he made the movie to “make people angry” about the lack of safety measures on the road and now believes last month’s horrific roadside deaths of four seniors from Malibu’s Pepperdine University is being viewed as a “tipping point” that will persuade authorities to take action.
