Building Escape Route to Cut Fatal Crashes : County to Temporarily Shut Kanan Dume

A rash of fatal accidents involving runaway vehicles on the steep Kanan Dume Road near Malibu has prompted Los Angeles County Supervisors to close part of the popular cross-mountain route until a 1,000-foot-long gravel escape route is built at Pacific Coast Highway.

Supervisors on Tuesday ordered a twisting, four-mile stretch of Kanan Dume north of the coast highway intersection to close at 8 p.m. Friday. It will not reopen until about mid-November, after the $500,000 “arrester bed” of gravel and sand is filled in at the intersection, county officials said.

Of Kanan Dume Road’s 13 miles, only the four miles south of the Newton Canyon tunnels will be closed until the gravel bed is completed.

The county did not have to close the road for construction to begin but took the measure to ensure there would be no more accidents during the 30-45 day construction period.

Heavily Used Road

The road is heavily used, especially by beachgoers during the summer when it has about 8,500 automobile trips a day, county officials said. Traffic declines about 40% in winter, when it is used mostly by commuters, authorities said.

The vote to close Kanan Dume follows three fatal crashes by runaway vehicles, including one Saturday and another Sept. 16, that have killed four people in the last 2 1/2 months. In the two latest accidents, a recreational vehicle and a truck crashed into automobiles on the coast highway at high speed when their brakes failed.

The supervisors also agreed to pay for Highway Patrol operation of a portable weight station at the top of the hill 24 hours a day, instead of the current 12 hours, until the road is closed Friday.

Supervisors last week lowered the maximum weight of vehicles on the road from 14,000 to 8,000 pounds, thereby banning trucks and many recreational vehicles during the hours the weight station operated.

The recreational vehicle in the fatal crash Saturday weighed about 9,000 pounds, the Highway Patrol reported.

The recent crashes have revived longstanding concern about the safety of Kanan Dume, on which at least 42 people have been killed and more than 500 injured since it opened in 1974 as a link between the Agoura area and the coast, county reports and newspaper accounts of accidents show.

The road’s many curves and unusually steep 8% grades have contributed to its reputation as one of the most dangerous in the region.

“We’ve been receiving telephone calls and letters. There is a strong feeling in the community that something had to be done about the level of safety on Kanan Dume Road,” said Peter Ireland, aide to Supervisor Deane Dana, who proposed the emergency action.

Lt. Jerry Rudy, commander of the Highway Patrol station in Malibu, said concern is high because of the vulnerability of motorists on Pacific Coast Highway.

“At that intersection, you’re absolutely at the mercy of the runaway truck,” he said.

Both Rudy and Ireland maintained, however, that the accident rate on Kanan Dume is not particularly high. County Department of Public Works officials said the rate is “a little less” than average for county roads.

Runaway ‘Phenomenon’

“It’s just that it’s subject to the phenomenon of runaway trucks,” said Rudy, who estimates that 30 such accidents have occurred in the last decade. In several cases there were no serious injuries, but in several others more than one person was killed, he said.

“These spectacular crashes have been the hallmark of accidents here,” he said.

In response to public concern and several lawsuits, the county has taken several measures in recent years to improve safety on the road, including placement of warning signs, construction of guardrails and passing lanes, use of radar by patrolmen and twice reducing the allowed weight of vehicles, officials say.

The number of serious accidents on the road dropped sharply during 1986 after the radar-enforcement program was implemented, the Highway Patrol reported last December.

“We’d gone a long period without any serious accidents. But our efforts haven’t been enough,” Rudy said, citing that as reason for the supervisors’ action.

None of the recent accidents would have occurred had the gravel bed been in place, county officials said.

Once the 2 1/2-foot-deep, 16-foot-wide bed is dug into the center of Kanan Dume Road, drivers of runaway vehicles can steer into it at high speed with far less chance of being injured, said Thomas A. Tidemanson, county public works director.

“It’ll be like driving off the road onto the beach,” Tidemanson said.