A veteran Nobu chef was killed when a teenage driver speeding on California’s notoriously hazardous Pacific Coast Highway crashed into his parked car as he slept inside before work.
Disturbing surveillance video shows a Range Rover driven by a 16-year-old boy hurtling into the rear of 51-year-old Ryo Uchimiya’s vehicle outside Nobu Malibu early Saturday morning.
The force of the collision propelled Uchimiya’s sedan into two other parked cars, triggering a devastating chain-reaction crash.
Uchimiya, a much-loved sushi chef who had worked at the celebrity-favorite restaurant for 25 years, suffered multiple blunt-force injuries and died, according to the Los Angeles County medical examiner.
His death was classified as accidental.
The father of two had arrived early for work and was napping in his car before starting his shift when the SUV struck at about 6:50 a.m., according to KTLA.
The 16-year-old driver’s Range Rover sits beside the mangled wreckage following the Pacific Coast Highway crash that killed longtime Nobu chef Ryo Uchimiya
Police tape surrounded the scene outside Nobu Malibu after the teenage driver hit Uchimiya’s parked car while the chef rested inside before work
A colleague told the New York Post that Uchimiya had been preparing for a catering assignment and planned to rest for only about 30 minutes.
‘He was resting, getting ready for a catering gig,’ a fellow Nobu chef said. ‘We all get here really early.’
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigators believe the teenager was speeding before the collision.
A witness said the boy appeared stunned and confused after the crash.
‘I heard throughout the day that maybe he didn’t even have a license,’ she said. ‘He’s a young kid. He looked very young and very confused and his parents didn’t even show up to find him. He was sitting there for two hours by himself.’
Investigators found no indication that the 16-year-old had been under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
The devastating impact left Uchimiya’s colleagues stunned.
‘Guy must have been flying,’ the fellow Nobu chef said. ‘Out of all the parked cars out here, why did it have to be this one?’
Several vehicles were left badly damaged along Pacific Coast Highway after Uchimiya’s car was pushed into other parked vehicles in the chain-reaction collision
A neighbor said he heard the violent crash from the building where it happened and hurried outside to investigate.
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Emergency crews arrived roughly 11 minutes later, but several additional minutes passed before responders realized someone was trapped inside the wrecked vehicle.
‘I heard them say, “There’s someone in here,”‘ the neighbor recalled.
‘It took about nine minutes for them to cut into the car and get him out.’
He then watched rescuers desperately work on Uchimiya for several minutes.
News of the chef’s death devastated staff at Nobu Malibu, where Uchimiya had spent a quarter-century building a reputation as both a talented chef and cherished colleague.
‘He was a real nice guy, very talented chef,’ his coworker said. ‘It’s such a shame.’
A valet remembered Uchimiya as a ‘really nice guy’ who would routinely wave as he passed.
Others were simply too distraught to discuss what had happened.
‘We’re not ready to talk about it now,’ a Nobu hostess said. ‘We all need time.’
The restaurant’s manager said its tight-knit ‘family of staffers’ was rallying around Uchimiya’s wife and two sons.
Uchimiya had worked as a sushi chef at celebrity hotspot Nobu Malibu for 25 years, with devastated colleagues remembering the father-of-two as a kind and talented chef
‘Obviously, it’s been a very, very difficult day for so many people,’ the manager told KTLA.
Nobu Malibu was closed on Saturday as workers mourned their longtime colleague, while flowers and handwritten notes were left outside in his memory.
People living and working around Nobu told KTLA motorists routinely barrel along the stretch above the speed limit.
Former Malibu mayor Jefferson ‘Zuma Jay’ Wagner, who owns a surf shop across the street from Nobu, said dangerous encounters are a familiar sight.
‘I’m right across the street from Nobu. I see it all the time,’ Wagner told The California Post.
‘They get out, they don’t look in their mirrors. They hit the cyclists, run into car doors.’
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