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In the 2023 documentary, “21 Miles in Malibu,” local legend Jefferson “Zuma Jay” Wagner leans against the doorway of his iconic surf shop on the north side of Pacific Coast Highway across from the Malibu Pier.

“I have seen nine fatal collisions or deaths from this exact spot where I’m standing,” Wagner says, before he ticks them off: A good friend who was speeding and flipped his Jeep several times, a helmetless motorcyclist hit by a car, a woman who died by suicide by stepping off the curb into high-speed traffic, a pedestrian who crossed the street at an angle in front of fast-moving cars, and so on.

Wagner spent eight years on the Malibu City Council, and in that time, he says, “There was no serious awareness campaign about the tragedies and mishaps that happen on this highway daily.”

The stretch of Pacific Coast Highway that spans the length of Malibu is one of the most storied roads in the world and also, tragically, one of the bloodiest. As someone who frequently drives PCH between Santa Monica and Trancas, I often hold my breath for fear that some spacey tourist or distracted teenager will wander off the beach and into my path. Or that a car will back out of a driveway right into me. Or that a driver ahead of me will spot an open space on the shoulder and slam on the brakes to back into the spot. I am in awe of the brave cyclists willing to risk their lives for the sake of a beautiful ride.

Since April 2010, when 13-year-old Emily Shane was killed by a reckless, suicidal motorist as she walked to meet her father after a sleepover, 63 people have died in crashes along PCH. That is a shockingly high number of traffic deaths in a city of fewer than 10,000 people.

“It’s a hybrid road — a country road, a highway, a city road. People run across it all the time, and something has to be done,” said Emily’s father, Michael Shane, who has dedicated the years since his youngest child died to making PCH safer.

Three years ago, Shane, a film producer best known for “Catch Me if You Can” and “I, Robot” made “21 Miles” to shine a light on the extraordinary dangers of having a five-lane state highway running through what is essentially a residential neighborhood. The hour-long documentary, which won several film festival awards, aired Thursday on PBS SoCal and will be available on the PBS app and website.

“Being on this roadway,” says Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Det. David Huelsen in the film, “is probably the single most dangerous thing you’re gonna do on your vacation.”

Shortly after “21 Miles” was finished, in October 2023, four young women who were seniors at Pepperdine University were killed by a 22-year-old Malibu man who lost control of his BMW while speeding at an estimated 104 mph.

The four women had just parked and gotten out of their car on a portion of PCH that locals call “Dead Man’s Curve,” when Fraser Bohm slammed into three parked cars, which hit the students. (Bohm has been charged with four counts of murder and four counts of vehicular manslaughter.)

While Emily’s death got the conversation started, the deaths of sorority sisters Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams catalyzed real change on PCH.

“You get one or two people dying and it’s a tragedy,” Shane told me. “When four people standing at the side of the road are wiped out, that got attention. Things started to happen.”

About seven months after the crash, state and local officials launched a safety campaign urging drivers to “slow the fast down.”

In February, Malibu announced with great fanfare that CalTrans had launched a program to synchronize 12 signals on an eight-mile segment between Topanga Canyon Boulevard and John Tyler Drive on the west side of Pepperdine. Monitored in real time, drivers going the speed limit will experience continuous green lights, while drivers going too fast will more frequently hit red lights.

Later this summer, two........

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