Four women die after driver loses control and smashes into parked cars then hits group standing on the side of the road in Malibu
- Four women were killed in a serious car crash in Malibu on Tuesday
- Two others were taken to hospital under unknown circumstances
- Police are investigating whether the accident was a street race gone wrong
Four people were killed Tuesday evening after a driver struck several parked cars and a group of women standing on the side of a coastal road in Malibu.
In the 8:30 p.m. crash on the Pacific Coast Highway block, a yet-unnamed driver lost control of his vehicle before hitting two sets of parked cars.
He then fatally beat four women standing on the side of the road. ABC7 reported.
Multiple police cars and fire trucks were seen blocking the highway in both directions to deal with the incident.
Eyewitnesses told local media that several bodies could be seen scattered across the dual carriageway, along with a series of destroyed vehicles.
The unnamed driver crashed into two sets of parked cars in Malibu on Tuesday
The driver also killed four women standing on the side of the road
Several police cars and fire trucks blocked both roads of the coastal road
‘This one is heavy. There’s just a lot of carnage, just metal carnage,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Sheila Kelliher Berkoh said.
“Any time you come and there are four bodies that didn’t survive, it’s hard to look at,” she added.
Two more victims have since been rushed to hospital, although their current conditions are not yet known.
The driver was stopped and forced to take a field sobriety test, with local authorities saying drugs and alcohol do not appear to have been a factor in the crash.
But the Los Angeles County Fire Department said speed was likely a factor in the crash.
Authorities are currently investigating whether two drivers may have raced along the straight stretch of road.
Authorities say drugs and alcohol did not play a role in the crash
Police are investigating whether two motorists were racing on the straight stretch of road
Eyewitnesses said they saw bodies and badly mangled cars strewn across the highway
Street racing is a growing problem in Malibu
Street racing is a growing problem in Malibu, according to local residents.
“Since COVID, there has been an increase in incredible races up and down this highway, all night long,” Joan Zoloth of Malibu told ABC7.
“People in the community have complained and are very concerned. And then you have something like this,” she added.
Local media reported in 2021, during the pandemic, that a local police task force wrote 237 citations and issued 31 verbal warnings to street racers in just three months.
A representative from the LA Country Sheriff’s Office said at a local meeting at the time, “More people than ever are coming to Malibu (during Covid).
The department noted at the meeting that its officers had written 13,015 citations in 2020, with the representative adding, “DUI is up 43 percent from the year before.”