Malibu residents speak out after four Pepperdine students killed on PCH

Surveillance cameras outside of a Malibu home captured the moment a 22-year-old driver in a dark-colored BMW goes speeding by on Pacific Coast Highway just seconds before it crashed into four Pepperdine University students, killing them all.  

The crash happened around 8:30 p.m. in the 21600 block of PCH, near La Costa Beach and east of the Malibu Pier, authorities said. 

“I feel terrible for them,” Rob Daniels, whose cameras captured the moment, told KTLA’s Omar Lewis.  

Daniels got emotional thinking about the four young women, all of whom have been identified and were seniors at Pepperdine’s Seaver College of Liberal Arts, that lost their lives not far from his home. He said that the stretch of PCH just outside his door is dangerous.  

“This is not the first time,” he said. “We had a piano teacher come when my kid was taking piano lessons. Luckily, she didn’t get out of her car. She was rear ended.”  

Investigators with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the driver, identified as Fraser Michael Bhom, was speeding in his dark-colored BMW westbound on PCH when he lost control, sideswiped several parked vehicles, and crashed into the young women who were walking in the area. The four victims were pronounced dead at the scene. Two other as of yet unidentified victims were taken to a nearby hospital in unknown conditions. 

The 22-year-old who was seen on video taking a field sobriety test is now facing manslaughter charges. 

Chris Hanson lives a few houses down from where the crash happened and knows Bhom.  

“Last night was an accident. I don’t think it had anything to do with street racing. Obviously, he is at fault from what I understand, but he is a good kid and very well respected in this community,” he told KTLA.  

Former mayor of Malibu Jefferson Wagner said that something needs to be done about to make this particular stretch of PCH safer so a tragedy like this doesn’t happen again.  

“When we became a city, we lost the California Highway Patrol here,” he said. “We used to have a highway patrol office here on Malibu Road. It might be nice to see the CHP having more visits out here. That’s all we can do, is try and improve and never let this happen again.”