Video shows a speeding teen slamming into a parked car on Pacific Coast Highway, killing Nobu Malibu chef Ryo Uchimiya as he slept inside before work.
A 16-year-old boy driving an SUV eastbound on Pacific Coast Highway struck a parked car near Carbon Canyon Road around 7 a.m. Saturday, killing the 51-year-old chef sleeping in the back seat. The force shoved that vehicle into another car, then a third, in a multi-vehicle wreck just steps from the restaurant where he worked.
The New York Post reported that Uchimiya, a longtime chef at Nobu Malibu since its early days, had worked the night before, arrived early, and fallen asleep while preparing for a catering job in Santa Monica. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies found him dead in the back seat.
KTLA obtained footage of the crash. It shows the SUV appearing to travel above the posted speed limit, crossing the fog line, then veering onto the shoulder and slamming into the parked car.
A sheriff’s watch commander said the SUV driver was a 16-year-old boy traveling eastbound at what appeared to be above the speed limit. 99.1 FM reported the teenager was going at least 50 mph when he swerved and struck the parked vehicle.
California Highway Patrol issued a Sigalert at 7:51 a.m. and shut down two left lanes for an undetermined period. Deputies cordoned off the scene. Badly damaged vehicles sat along the highway as the investigation began.
As of Sunday morning, there were no new public updates on the probe and no word of any arrests.
Nobu Malibu, the famed oceanfront Japanese restaurant popular with celebrities, closed Saturday. Employees left notes and flowers outside in Uchimiya’s memory. Staff confirmed he had worked the Malibu location the night before the crash and was still preparing for the next job when the collision happened.
He was found where many early-shift workers try to grab rest between long nights and early call times, in his own car, parked near the job. That ordinary decision ended when a speeding SUV left the travel lane.
The death follows a separate April crash in nearby Dana Point that killed Rainer Schwarz, 59, a Laguna Beach chef and restaurant owner. Two working chefs, both gone after roadway wrecks in the same coastal stretch of California.
Authorities have not released the teen driver’s name. They have not detailed injuries, if any, to people in the other vehicles. The exact posted speed limit at the crash site was not stated in available accounts, only that the SUV appeared to exceed it and was traveling at least 50 mph.
What is clear is the sequence: an underage driver at high speed, a fog-line crossing, a shoulder impact, a parked car launched into others, and a 51-year-old chef dead in the back seat before his workday started.
Hardworking people should be able to rest in a parked car without paying with their lives because a teenager could not keep an SUV in its lane at highway speed. Accountability has to mean more than lane closures and flowers on the sidewalk.
