Malibu, CA, October 3 – One person was killed Saturday morning in Malibu after a vehicle driven by a teenager crashed into a parked car, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The department’s initial account covers the crash, the identity of the person who died, and the response on the roadway. This report draws only on that account, and it does not add information from any other source. Details beyond that account have not been released.
Malibu Collision on Pacific Coast Highway Leaves One Person Dead
At roughly 6:50 a.m., a Range Rover struck a parked vehicle from behind in the 22600 block of West Pacific Coast Highway, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The Range Rover was being operated by a 16-year-old boy. The information released so far does not name the driver. The sheriff’s department provided these details after the collision.
Deputies identified the person who died as Ryo Uchimiya, a 51-year-old employee of Nobu Malibu. He was inside the parked vehicle when it was struck, according to the sheriff’s department. The account does not say whether he owned the vehicle or whether anyone else was with him. His name is published here as it was given in the sheriff’s account.
A portion of the highway was closed while investigators worked the scene. A SigAlert went out for the closure, with an expected end time of about noon. The account does not say which lanes were blocked or whether the closure will last past that time. What remains unconfirmed includes the cause of the collision, how fast the Range Rover was traveling, and the driver’s condition.
What the at-fault driver is required to carry, and why it often is not enough
Vehicle Code section 16056 sets California’s minimum liability limits, and they changed recently. For a policy issued or renewed on or after 1 January 2025, the minimum is $30,000 for injury to or death of one person, $60,000 where two or more people are hurt, and $15,000 for property damage. Policies written before that date may still carry the older minimum of $15,000, $30,000 and $5,000.
Those are floors, not typical limits, and a single hospital admission can exhaust the lower figure before any other loss is counted. Where the at-fault driver carries the minimum, the uninsured and underinsured motorist cover on the injured person’s own policy is often the part that matters most, and it is worth checking early rather than after the other insurer has made an offer.
The deadline that applies to a claim like this one
Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 gives two years for an action for injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another. The same two years covers an injury claim and a death claim; there is no separate, shorter period because someone died.
Who is entitled to bring a claim when someone is killed
Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60 decides who may bring a wrongful death action. The first group is the surviving spouse, domestic partner, children and the issue of deceased children, or, where there is no surviving issue, whoever would take the estate by intestate succession.
A second group may bring the action only if they were financially dependent on the person who died: a putative spouse and their children, stepchildren, parents, and the legal guardians of the person who died where the parents are deceased. Parents are in that second group, which is the part families are most often surprised by, because dependency has to be shown rather than assumed.
Talking to someone about it
Culver Legal represents people injured in collisions across California. A conversation about what happened costs nothing, and we work on a contingency fee, which means there is no fee unless we win. If we do not win, we do not pass the case costs on to you either.
Nothing on this page is legal advice about any particular case, and the facts of a reported collision often change as the investigation continues.
