Police closed both directions of Pacific Coast Highway north of the California Incline for three hours on July 6, as a man reportedly threw rocks at the busy road and possibly threatened to jump onto it.
A CHP spokesman said a person began threatening to jump from the bluffs at Palisades Park onto the highway at about 12:45 p.m. on July 6. He was arrested and the road reopened at about 3:40 p.m., according to the CHP.
Social media photos showed fire trucks and police under the Montana Avenue pedestrian overcrossing, just north of the incline’s signal. One photo showed a man teetering on a retaining wall above the road, a rock reportedly in his hand.
The CHP closed the McClure Tunnel to westbound traffic at the end of the Santa Monica (10) Freeway. Traffic in downtown Santa Monica was jammed, and the freeway backed up well into Los Angeles.
Southbound PCH traffic was detoured onto single-lane Entrada Road, and there was heavy traffic on Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades.
On an average day, 80,000 vehicles per day use that section of PCH, but Sunday’s traffic could be presumed to be much heavier as hundreds of thousands of people flocked to Malibu and Santa Monica to enjoy the 69-degree water.
In other news, a crash caused two northbound lanes of Pacific Coast Highway to be closed at El Matador State Beach, says Lt. Michael Williams of the Sheriff’s Malibu-Lost Hills Station. One person was taken to a hospital, according to Los Angeles County Fire Dept. dispatcher Cheryl Sims. All northbound lanes have since been reopened, authorities said.
