1 Dead, 18 Hurt in Inmate Truck Crash : Accident: Vehicle carrying prisoners to a work site slams into a tree along a rural highway near Ramona.

One man was killed and 18 others injured Friday morning when a San Diego County Probation Department truck carrying inmates slammed into a tree beside a rural highway near Ramona, officials said.

Officials said the enclosed truck was traveling west along winding, two-lane California 78, also known a Julian Road, taking Camp West Fork inmates to a Spring Valley road station work site operated by the county Department of Public Works.

Inmate Michael Anthony Mathews, 29, of Cardiff, who was riding in the front passenger seat, was killed when the truck careened 10-feet down an embankment and crashed into an oak tree, a California Highway Patrol officer said. The tree kept the truck from flipping into a canyon. The crash occurred at 8:52 a.m., authorities said.

Probation Officer Robert Reyes, 26, was driving the truck and could give no reason for the crash, officials said.

“This has been the most serious accident we (the probation department) have ever had,” said Jeri Scheidel, an administrative director who has been with the department for 30 years. Laurent J. Renaud, 24, and Rafael R. Esparza, 31, were taken by Life Flight helicopter to UC San Diego Medical Center, where they were reported in critical condition, authorities said. Another unidentified inmate was transferred from Pomerado Hospital to UCSD Medical Center’s trauma unit in critical condition, Scheidel said.

Three other inmates were described in serious but stable condition at Palomar Medical Center, Scheidel said, declining to release the names.

The truck driver and remaining 10 inmates were treated at hospitals and returned to Camp West Fork, formerly known as Warner Springs Honor Camp, officials said.

Camp West Fork is a minimum-security adult detention facility near Warner Springs and the Cleveland National Forest, said Probation Department spokeswoman Arlene Smith. The inmates there are primarily sentenced to less than one year for misdemeanor and/or nonviolent felonies, Smith said.

Typically, crews of six inmates leave West Fork in trucks equipped with bus-like seating tool storage spaces for various brush clearing and cleaning jobs for government agencies such as the San Diego County Parks and Recreation and Caltrans, Scheidel said.

A preliminary investigation indicates Reyes was sober, traveling at the speed limit, and that the truck was mechanically sound, said CHP officer Mona DeMello-Hoss.