Malibu Officials, Residents Offer Ideas for Safety on PCH and Kanan

The truck driver who died in a collision March 31 on Kanan-Dume Road was carrying a heavier load than the law allows. Sgt. Phil Brooks, traffic head at the , said this at the Malibu Public Safety Commission meeting Wednesday night at the old City Hall.

Brooks said 35-year-old Vardan Harutyunyan of Van Nuys was driving a truck carrying 17.5 tons of asphalt. The legal limit for Kanan is 8,000 pounds, with some exceptions. Harutyunyan also did not have a county permit to carry the material, Brooks said.

Harutyunyan, an independent truck driver, collected the asphalt from the Sully Miller Co. in Sun Valley, and was headed for a site on Ramirez Canyon Road.  Brooks said he should have taken Malibu Canyon Road to access Pacific Coast Highway, and then Ramirez Canyon. He said some drivers use a GPS to find locations in Malibu, and it tells them to use Kanan. They are often unfamiliar with the rules of the road.

“He was the only victim, so no further investigation will be done on the truck and no citation will be issued,” Brooks said.

Harutyunyan somehow lost control of the vehicle shortly before 12 p.m., according to the sheriff’s station. The truck struck two parked cars, a fire hydrant and a utility pole. This caused a small fire, brief local power outage, some flooding and the closure of the road for more than 24 hours while power lines were removed from the ground and new lines were installed. It took several hours to find Harutyunyan, Brooks said, because the force of impact had thrown him into the back of the cab, which was turned over.  He died from burns and smoke inhalation.

Public Safety Commissioner Susan Tellem noted that there had been a great deal of concern [amongst local residents] over the lack of safety on Kanan and what they considered to be a failure by officials to communicate that the road was closed.

“Communication is still terrible in Malibu,” Tellem said. “And maybe we as a commission could be more involved in stepping up the communication efforts … The danger of the runaway trucks happens too often. There should be a communication to all these truck companies in and around Agoura that make these deliveries.”

Runaway trucks are supposed to move onto a three-foot-deep, graveled escape median located in the middle of the road. This option was not available for Harutyunyan because he had not reached the point of the road where the escape median starts. Malibu resident Steve Littlejohn, whose office overlooks the Kanan/PCH intersection, said there should be an escape median at a higher point of the road. Also, he said heavily loaded trucks should only be allowed to move uphill.

Although it was not the case for last week’s collision, there have been several incidents where runaway trucks have reached the point of Kanan where the escape median is an option, but the driver either cannot access it or chooses not to do so. Littlejohn said the road should be adjusted so all traffic heading down Kanan would be aimed directly at the escape median through the use of a concrete barrier. Prior to reaching the escape median, drivers would navigate a gentle “jog” over to the right. A runaway vehicle would be unable to negotiate this gentle jog, and be forced onto the escape median.

Some people suggested more warning signs on Kanan, in a variety of languages, could prevent accidents. Brooks said there are already 24 signs between the 101 Freeway and PCH notifying drivers about truck weight limits, the 8 percent grade of Kanan and other issues. Also, he noted that one has to understand English to get a drivers license.

Brooks said the sheriff’s department has issued 230 traffic citations to trucks on Kanan’s Malibu portion (which begins at the Cavalleri intersection) since 2007.

The March 17 PCH death of 41-year-old Malibu resident Joseph Annocki was also a topic at the meting. He was killed when his motorcycle was struck by a vehicle pulling out of Geoffrey’s Malibu, according to the sheriff’s station. Brooks told Malibu Patch last month that he would recommend the Los he Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charge the driver of the vehicle, Oklahoma resident Terry Turner, with vehicular manslaughter. Brooks said at the meeting this usually results in a punishment of probation.

Brooks said Turner attempted to stop his car before striking Annocki, and he was not intoxicated.

Malibu resident Hans Laetz said the yellow paddles on the highway near Geoffrey’s have created a “divided highway” that requires special signage, including “one-way” signs for vehicles turning onto PCH from the restaurant’s parking lot. Jim Riley, a Caltrans traffic engineer, disputed this interpretation of the law.