Newbury Park High School junior dies in car crash on PCH in Malibu
By Nancy Needham  nancy@theacorn.com

Sheriff's investigators suspect teen drinking and unsafe speed were factors in a single-vehicle accident Tuesday night that killed the teenage male driver and left a teen female passenger with critical head injuries. Two male teens in the car suffered broken bones.

The driver attended Newbury Park High School, along with three others in the car, and a fifth teen is from Camarillo, according to Traffic Sgt. Philip Brooks of the Malibu/Lost Hills Los Angeles County Sheriff's Station.

Cody James Murphy, a 17-year-old high school junior, died when the 2007 Subaru Impreza he was driving slammed into the mountainside along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

Cody died instantly when the driver's side of the car was crushed, Brooks said.

The accident occurred at about 10:05 p.m. When emergency personnel arrived, the four survivors had helped each other out of the car, which had repeatedly rolled over, coming to rest upside-down in the middle of PCH between Broad Beach and Encinal Canyon roads, Brooks said.

He said the teens admitted they had been drinking at a concert in Hollywood earlier in the evening and at Santa Monica Pier, which they visited before heading home.

There was a large empty bottle of Jagermeister liqueur in the vehicle, Brooks said, along with a marijuana pipe and a medical marijuana container with a blue and white sticker.

The male juvenile in the front seat was treated at the scene and released, Brooks said. The two males in the back seat had broken bones and were taken to UCLA Medical Center. The female seated in the center of the back seat suffered critical head injuries and was airlifted to the same hospital.

Brooks, who was at the accident scene, has spent 25 years in law enforcement, devoting much of his time to giving lectures in an attempt to deter teens from driving under the influence, he said.

"We try to teach them and tell them, and tragedies keep happening. We have to keep getting the message out," Brooks said.

The names and ages of the four survivors weren't available at press time.

Cody played for the Newbury Park High School varsity football team.