Top left: Peyton Stewart (LinkedIn). Bottom left: Deslyn Williams (Instagram). Center: Asha Weir and Niamh Rolston (Instagram/@niamhrolston). Right: crash suspect Fraser Bohm pitching in Perfect Game Underclass All American Games in August 2018 (YouTube/SkillShowVideos screengrab).
Families of two college seniors and sorority sisters who were struck and killed along “Dead Man’s Curve” on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California, allegedly by a speeding BMW driver who lost control in October 2023, are now suing the state, the city, and the California Department of Transportation in an attempt to “force” change.
The wrongful death lawsuit filed by the mother of 21-year-old Asha Weir and the mother and father of 21-year-old Deslyn Williams does not name crash murder suspect Fraser Bohm as a defendant, but rather government entities state and local. The suit claimed the defendants have known for more than a decade that the design of the “.8 mile stretch of PCH” where friends Weir, Williams, Peyton Stewart, 21, and Niamh Rolston, 20, were hit and killed was “dangerous,” and yet only a fraction of necessary safety changes were made.
The suit claimed Weir and Williams’ deaths, and those of their fellow Pepperdine University’s Seaver College of Liberal Arts students (their loved ones have reportedly sued separately), were the result of defendants who “negligently, carelessly, recklessly, or in some other actionable manner, planned, modified, altered, constructed, repaired, monitored, improved, changed, manage, designed, controlled, maintained, and served” Pacific Coast Highway.
Also named as a plaintiff was Carlos Solloa, who said he was hit by Bohm’s BMW while parked and suffered “significant orthopedic and neurologic injuries” that he survived. Solloa likewise claimed the state should be liable for his injuries and “lost earning capacity.”
As Law&Crime has reported, Bohm, once known locally as a high school baseball player, is accused of losing control of his BMW while speeding 104 mph in a 45 mph zone around 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 17, swerving “towards the shoulder of the north side of Pacific Coast Highway,” and then hitting into the college students and parked cars one day after he turned 22.
Weir Williams, Stewart and Rolston were walking to a school event.
Fraser Bohm investigated by authorities after crash (KTLA/screengrab)
Following an arrest, Bohm’s defense lawyer claimed that his client was run off of the road.
“We’ve actually been able to track down who this person is, and the person who admitted to a family member that they did drive him off the road,” Michael Kraut said at time, according to local CW affiliate KTLA.
The case has not yet gone to trial. Bohm has pleaded not guilty.
In the aftermath of the deadly crash, Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Capt. Jennifer Seetoo acknowledged that “too many people on this stretch of the highway […] have been killed.”
“We have to look at law enforcement differently. We have got to change with the times,” Seetoo urged. “That’s my call to action, to the community. Let’s partner together to save lives. Elected officials, I need your help. Let’s partner together and save lives.”
The plaintiffs agree that more should have been done, since Seetoo’s own data noted that there were thousands of crashes over a ten-year period on Pacific Coast Highway and that 53 people died as result.
“In 2023, there were 230 vehicular collisions on PCH in Malibu, including 3 fatal collisions, not including those of Decedents herein,” the lawsuit said. “Between 2013 – 2023, there were at total of 3,345 vehicle collisions on PCH in Malibu, resulting in 53 deaths and 92 serious injuries.”
The plaintiffs’ lawyers at Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP now say that “Enough is enough.”
“For far too long, Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu has been – and continues to be – unsafe for pedestrians and drivers alike. As a result of the defendants’ complacency, far too many lives have been needlessly lost. Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir, and Deslyn Williams should be here today,” the attorneys said in a statement. “These lawsuits will force the defendants to do what they should have done a long time ago so no more lives are needlessly taken.”
Read the lawsuit here.
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