Cellphone records from Olympian and reality TV star Bruce Jenner will be sought in connection with a fatal four-vehicle Malibu crash in which he was involved, authorities said Monday, when they asked for witnesses to come forward.
Kim Howe, a 69-year-old Calabasas woman, was killed, the county coroner’s office confirmed.
Friends said Howe was a widow with no children who owned homes in a gated community in Calabasas and in Malibu.
The collision occurred just after noon Saturday on Pacific Coast Highway at Corral Canyon Road.
A blue Toyota Prius slowed or stopped for unknown reasons and was struck by a white Lexus, which in turn was hit by a Cadillac Escalade being driven by Jenner. The Lexus was pushed into oncoming southbound traffic and was struck by a black Hummer, authorities said.
Howe was driving the Lexus on a driver’s license that had expired in 2007, according to the DMV.
She died at the scene, authorities said.
She was struck by two of the heaviest vehicles on the road: the Escalade, which was towing an off-road vehicle, and a Hummer H2, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Philip Brooks said.
The Sheriff’s Department on Monday asked for witnesses to come forward.
Jenner issued a statement on Sunday about the crash, which left all involved vehicles with significant damage.
“My heartfelt sympathies go out to the family and loved ones, and to all of those who were involved or injured in this terrible accident,” the statement said. “It is a devastating tragedy and I cannot pretend to imagine what this family is going through at this time. I am praying for them. I will continue to cooperate in every way possible.”
He was not considered at fault in the initial investigation, and was not considered to have caused the crash, Brooks said shortly after the crash. Jenner, he said, was distraught.
“He was quite upset that someone had died, but he was very cooperative with us,” Brooks told KTLA on Monday.
Five children and two adults were hospitalized with minor injuries, sheriff’s Capt. Mike Parker said about five hours after the crash.
Jenner passed a voluntary field sobriety test and then went to a hospital to give a blood sample on his own accord, while the Prius driver arranged her own transport to the hospital, Brooks said on the day of the crash. Neither appeared to be injured, Brooks said.
Traffic investigators planned to meet with Jenner Monday and ask him to sign documents allowing them to obtain his cellphone records, Brooks said. His publicist has said he will comply.
“It may or may not be a factor in the collision,” Brooks said. “If it can be shown he’s texting while driving or talking on the phone while driving, that is a vehicle code violation and could result in more serious charges.”
It can be difficult to show from cellphone records that a driver was texting at the exactly second of a crash, Brooks said.
Jenner and other parties involved will be interviewed again, he said.
It’s possible no one was at criminally responsible, Brooks said. Asked about reports that the case has turned into a vehicular manslaughter investigation, Brooks called it only a “fatal traffic investigation.”
There was no evidence of speeding, and no drivers had been cited.
Photos from paparazzi, who were following Jenner, show Jenner holding something in his hand, purportedly immediately before the collision.
Celebrity photographers were following Jenner but Brooks said they were not believed to have been a factor in the crash. Jenner was not making “evasive maneuvers” to avoid the paparazzi, Brooks said.
An investigation into the crash could take six months or longer, the sergeant said.
Jenner has been on tabloid magazine covers and in the news recently because of his apparent gender transformation, which has been widely reported but not confirmed publicly by Jenner himself.
He is a former track and field athlete who won gold in the decathlon at the Summer Olympics in 1976. Now divorced, he was married to Kris Jenner, the mother of Kourtney, Kim and Khloe Kardashian. Jenner starred in the family’s E! reality TV series “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”
Anyone who witnessed or has information regarding the collision was asked to call the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station at 818-878-1808 or Detective Curry at 818-878-5557.
