Longtime Nobu chef, 51, killed in horrific collision after speeding teenage driver slams into his vehicle on California highway

A longtime Nobu chef was killed after a teenage driver speeding along California’s notoriously dangerous Pacific Coast Highway, smashed into his parked car as he slept inside before work.

Horrifying surveillance footage captured the moment a Range Rover driven by a 16-year-old boy slammed into the back of 51-year-old Ryo Uchimiya’s vehicle outside Nobu Malibu early on Saturday morning.

The enormous impact sent Uchimiya’s sedan careening into two other parked vehicles in a devastating chain-reaction crash.

Uchimiya, a beloved sushi chef who had worked at the celebrity hotspot for 25 years, suffered multiple blunt force injuries and died, according to the Los Angeles County medical examiner.

His death was ruled an accident.

The father-of-two had arrived early ahead of work and was taking a nap inside his car before beginning his shift when the SUV plowed into him at around 6:50am, according to KTLA.

A coworker told the New York Post that Uchimiya had been preparing for a catering assignment and was expected to rest for only around half an hour.

‘He was resting, getting ready for a catering gig,’ a fellow Nobu chef said. ‘We all get here really early.’

Investigators with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department believe the teenage motorist was speeding before the collision.

The boy appeared stunned and confused in the aftermath, according to a witness.

‘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 said there was no indication that the 16-year-old was under the influence.

The sheer force of the crash stunned Uchimiya’s colleagues.

‘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?’

A neighbor said he heard the violent collision from the building where the crash occurred and rushed to see what had happened.

Emergency crews were on scene about 11 minutes later, but noted how several more minutes passed before responders realized somebody was trapped inside the mangled 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.

‘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.’