Owner of popular Moonshadows restaurant in Malibu, and son, killed in fiery crash
By Brian Stelter
Mar 21, 2019 | 8:44 AM
Updated: Mar 23, 2019 6:40 AM
Moonshadows restaurant owner David DeCaro with his wife, Susan.
The owner of a popular Malibu restaurant known for its live music and great food is among five people killed in a fiery car crash in Riverside, California early Wednesday.
DeCaro was driving south on Mulholland Highway near its intersection with PCH, when a light-colored SUV with California license plate CGT-4K6 careened off the roadway on the southbound side of Mulholland, running off the edge of the southbound side of the north shoulder and crashing into a tree about 500 feet from the intersection, fire officials said.
DeCaro, 60, of Los Angeles, his son, Michael, 25, and the female passenger, an unnamed male, were pronounced dead at the scene, said Riverside County Fire Department Assistant Chief Dan Schurz in a statement. The female driver, who was in the passenger seat, died at a hospital after she was taken there about 2 a.m., Schurz said.
Another passenger in the SUV, an unidentified male 25, was also killed, Schurz said.
The crash caused a two-car pileup on the wrong side of the road. The northbound driver of the SUV was trapped under his vehicle. DeCaro tried to help the trapped driver extricate himself from his vehicle, but the other driver refused, Schurz said.
The male passenger had a leg injury, Schurz said.
Los Angeles City Fire Department Battalion Chief Michael Peebles initially estimated the car was traveling about 45 mph as it hit the tree. A preliminary investigation indicated that there was a chain reaction that sent other cars on the highway into the tree area and that the car was traveling at over 60 mph when the collision happened.
“We know there was a chain reaction on the north shoulder of Mulholland Highway,” Schurz said.
The scene in Malibu
Investigators were working to determine what caused the crashes at the intersection.
“It was chaotic,” Peebles said. “It was pretty chaotic. There were a lot of collisions and lots of injuries. Everybody