The families of four sorority girls who were killed by a car on California's Pacific Coast Highway are suing state and local governments over a notorious death trap locals call “Dead Man's Curve.”
In October 2023, four Pepperdine University students and sorority members – Niamh Rolston, Payton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams – were walking along a beachfront road in Malibu when a driver ran into the shoulder of the road, killing three of the girls and injuring another.
The driver was charged with speeding and vehicular manslaughter, but the girls' parents maintain he is not entirely responsible. The accident occurred in a pedestrianised area known as “Dead Man's Curve”, where residents and beachgoers walk just inches from the highway lanes.
Between 2013 and 2023, Dead Man's Curve saw more than 3,000 crashes, killing 52 people and seriously injuring 92, according to records filed in four separate lawsuits against the state of California, the California Department of Transportation, the California Coastal Commission, Los Angeles County and the city of Malibu.
The one-mile stretch of beach compels large numbers of visitors to the public beach to “walk along unprotected shoulders and around parked vehicles, with no sidewalks or crosswalks,” the lawsuit alleges.
“It's like [interstate] “This happened on a highway that runs through a residential area,” Dan Cranmer, an attorney for one of the parents, told The Post.
Cranmer said authorities were fully aware of the massacre.
In 2015, the Malibu City Council approved a plan calling for 130 improvements to Pacific Coast Highway, but only seven of those measures have been completed to date, despite more than $28 million being pumped into the project, according to records filed in the lawsuit.
“Police did nothing to protect pedestrians from the speeders who were traveling on that road and causing numerous deaths and injuries,” Cranmer said.
The driver who allegedly struck the four girls, 22-year-old Fraser Bohm, also struck co-plaintiff Carlos Soroa, a Pepperdine University student, who suffered “orthopedic and neurological injuries.”
Bohm is charged with murder and vehicular manslaughter.
Soroa and the other plaintiffs condemn Bohm's actions, but their lawsuit aims to make Dead Man's Curve a safer place for everyone, Cranmer added.
One of the victims, Peyton Stewart, was set to graduate this year with a degree in international business and had already secured a job at TikTok, according to her father, Barry Stewart.
Cranmer said Barry and his wife, Carmela, have “tried hard to remedy the situation,” making phone calls, attending public meetings and lobbying state and local officials.
“As devastating as this has been for them, I'm in awe of the strength of these parents and how hard they're willing to fight,” Cranmer said. “One death is awful, but 50 deaths over 10 years means at some point change has to be made.”
