2-Mile Stretch of Mulholland to Close Sunday to Halt Racing

Near a sharp curve in a winding stretch of Mulholland Highway in Agoura sits a big rock with a bulls-eye painted on it.

The neighbors know it as Splat Rock, a symbol of the danger posed by illegal motorcycle racing that has gone on for years in the area, said resident Bonnie Couch.

But complaints by Couch and her neighbors have prompted authorities to try a new approach against the racers. Starting Sunday and continuing every Sunday for the next three months, a two-mile stretch of the road will be closed to anyone who doesn’t reside or do business there.

The closure will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. between Kanan Road and Seminole Drive as part of a pilot program approved by Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich. The idea was suggested by the California Highway Patrol after a long history of complaints by residents, Antonovich spokesman Dawson Oppenheimer said.

Numerous Accidents

“It got to be a very huge, famous place to ride your motorcycle fast,” CHP Officer Dave Grajeda said. “Unfortunately, a lot of people couldn’t ride their motorcycles fast and a lot of people weren’t watching for fast motorcycles, so we had numerous accidents up there.”

Statistics were unavailable, Grajeda said, but the most recent serious accident on the stretch of roadway occurred March 5, when a motorcyclist lost control and was killed near Splat Rock.

Couch organized a petition drive in the spring, gathering more than 400 signatures from her neighbors in the Seminole Springs Mobile Home Park. The petitions asked for stop signs, speed bumps or some other solution to the Sunday racing problem. There are 215 trailers in the mobile home park, which is on Mulholland Highway.

“There are people who would not go to church because they were afraid to leave the park,” Couch said. “Motorcyclists have a right to ride, and we have nothing against them. But when they jeopardize and endanger lives, it’s a problem.”

The CHP at first responded by sending more officers to write tickets, but that is a costly expenditure of manpower, Grajeda said. Just two officers will be needed to enforce the closure, he said.

Riders who recently have seen signs announcing the closure have protested to the CHP, questioning the county’s right to close a public road, Grajeda said.

“I really don’t have a specific answer for them except to say it’s for their own safety,” he said. Many riders obey speed limits in the area. But “one bad seed spoils the whole apple,” he said. Crowds of several hundred have gathered at a roadside lookout point to watch the races, which usually occur on Sundays, he said.

The stretch of road is near the Rock Store, a well-known hangout for motorcyclists. But Grajeda and Couch said the Rock Store is not the source of the trouble.

Rather, Couch said, “it’s the younger guys who have started coming because somebody came and raced Mulholland and word seems to go around extremely quickly.”