Two drivers were killed Friday in a head-on crash between a pickup truck and a minivan on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu that also left a passenger and a bicyclist injured.
Paramedics sent to PCH at Trancas Canyon Road at 12:07 p.m. pronounced the two men dead at the scene, according to Sgt. Shawn Ruda of the sheriff’s Malibu-Lost Hills Station. Their names were withheld, pending notification of their relatives.
A passenger in the pickup truck was injured and airlifted to a hospital. That person was in stable condition, the sheriff’s department reported.
A bicyclist who was struck by a wheel from the pickup was also taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries described as minor, according to the sheriff’s department.
The crash forced the closure of all southbound and one northbound lane of PCH and a SigAlert was issued, according to the California Highway Patrol.
All lanes were reopened by 5:55 p.m., the CHP reported.
“Preliminary investigation at the scene indicates the driver of the gray Mercury minivan was traveling westbound on Pacific Coast Highway at a high rate of speed and attempted to pass another vehicle,” Deputy Dangelo Robinson of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau said.
“In doing so, the driver lost control of the minivan and crossed over the center divider colliding head-on with the red Dodge Ram truck.”