Trucker Pulled to Safety as Fiery Crash Kills 2

California Highway Patrol officials Friday credited an 18-year-old motorist with helping to save the driver of a gasoline tanker that overturned and exploded after an accident on U.S. 101 in Thousand Oaks in which two other people were killed.

Witnesses said Steen Davies, 18, of Newberry Park, on Thursday night helped move the truck’s driver, Luther Farris, 30, of San Pedro, away from the flaming wreckage. Farris was listed in satisfactory condition Friday at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks with second-degree burns over 20% of his body, including his head.

The Ventura County coroner’s office identified the couple killed when their car collided with Farris’ truck as David Casman, 63, and his wife, Gloria, 61, of Camarillo. They died from the force of the collision, according to Jim Wingate, an investigator with the coroner’s office.

The Casmans, residents of Leisure Village, owned Anne’s Corner, a Thousand Oaks shop that sells porcelain dolls and ceramic goods.

Besides his burns, Farris suffered a fractured left ankle and right shoulder separation in the 9:35 p.m. accident.

Northbound traffic was blocked for an hour as flames shot as high 100 feet from the loaded 8,000-gallon tanker truck. It took nearly an hour for Ventura County firefighters to contain the fire, and it was about 3 1/2 hours before all north-bound lanes were reopened, according to CHP Officer Matt DeMarco.

Davies, a freshman at Moorpark College, was driving behind Farris when the accident occurred in the northbound lanes of the freeway at Rancho Conejo Road.

Davies’ father, Lloyd, said the teen-ager saw Farris crawl out a window of the tanker truck, then roll onto the ground to extinguish flames on his head and shoulder.

“My son pulled his car between the truck and the driver and pulled him in the car to get him out of there because of the burning,” Lloyd Davies said. “Then he waited for the paramedics to take him to the hospital.”

Lloyd Davies said his son was not injured.