2 Critically Injured in Truck Accident
One man was near death and a second was in critical condition with head injuries at a Ventura hospital Sunday after they were thrown from the bed of a pickup truck on California 150 near Lake Casitas.
The driver of the truck and two passengers in the cab left the accident scene on foot before officers arrived shortly after 3:30 p.m. Saturday, the California Highway Patrol reported.
Esteven Lopez, 30, of Santa Barbara was being kept on life-support systems in the intensive care unit at Ventura County Medical Center, a nursing supervisor said.
Raoul Teran, 20, of Santa Barbara, suffered major head injuries and was also in the hospital’s intensive care unit on Sunday.
The two men were airlifted to the hospital following the accident.
A third passenger who was ejected from the truck bed, Juan Echevarria, 17, of Santa Barbara, was treated for minor injuries and released, a hospital nurse said.
The truck was headed west on California 150 five miles west of Santa Ana Road and about five miles east of the Ventura-Santa Barbara County line when the truck ran off the road and hit a rock embankment, the CHP said.
Officers did not know the cause of the accident.
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