Drunk Driver Gets 1 1/2-Year Term in Death of Girl on PCH

The family of 16-year-old Sabrina Csato reacted with anguish Wednesday after the drunk driver who killed her in a head-on collision on Pacific Coast Highway was sentenced to 1 1/2 years in jail and $7,000 in restitution.

Malibu Municipal Judge Lawrence Mira, saying he wished he could more fully protect society from the suspect, sentenced Kenneth Small, 42, to the maximum sentence allowed by the misdemeanor charge.

Sabrina’s father said he had sued the state because of its failure to construct a median barrier on PCH. Small’s minivan drifted into the oncoming lane just east of Point Dume on March 3, 1998, striking Sabrina’s car as she drove to Palisades High School and killing her instantly.

Small, a Malibu resident who has several drug-related convictions dating back to 1974, was declared dead at the scene but was revived by paramedics and spent three weeks in a coma. He pleaded guilty last year to vehicular manslaughter.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Martin Herscovitz said that although traces of opiates were found in Small’s system, one of the reasons he was not charged with felony manslaughter was because blood and urine tests were not taken until six hours after the accident.

“There were remnants of some kind of illegal narcotic in his system,” said Sheriff’s Det. Hugh Wahler, “but not enough” to justify felony prosecution, which would have subjected Small to far more prison time.

More than 100 people have died in the last 10 years on the stretch of Pacific Coast Highway between Santa Monica and the Ventura County line. Last year there were more than 300 accidents along that portion of the road.

After the sentencing, Sabrina’s father, Peter Csato, called Pacific Coast Highway a “treacherous deathtrap. . . . If there had been a median barrier on PCH, my daughter would be alive today.”

Several of Sabrina’s classmates, wearing large buttons with the dead girl’s yearbook picture, lighted candles by the courthouse Wednesday.

“She was so energetic, upbeat, so alive,” said 19-year-old Alexia Aleman, tears coming down her cheeks. “And now she’s dead.”

An attorney representing the Csato family said the family was starting a Web site for people who have had accidents on PCH to exchange information.

“This makes you look at life like it’s a bad dream,” said John Frizzell, 32, who became friends with Peter Csato and his family after walking into their Pacific Palisades hair salon five years ago. “It’s destroying his business, he’s so distracted.”

Caltrans spokesman Presley Burroughs said PCH has not been equipped with a median strip because of access concerns.

“Right now we have the ability to adjust the roadway easily in an emergency situation like a mudslide on one side of the road,” said Burroughs. “[We can] put northbound traffic temporarily on a southbound lane or vice versa. With a median we would have a much more difficult time doing that.”