Woman Waiting at Freeway Call Box Is Killed by Car

A Los Feliz woman was struck and killed by an auto Wednesday as she waited for roadside help beside a call box on the Ventura Freeway in Agoura Hills, authorities said.

The driver who allegedly hit her was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter.

Kathryn (Kami) Montgomery, 30, had driven her white Volkswagen bug onto the shoulder of the westbound Ventura Freeway near Liberty Canyon Road about 2 p.m. because she had engine trouble, California Highway Patrol officers said.

About five minutes after making a call for help on the emergency phone, she was struck by a car driven by 59-year-old Owen Kelchner Jones, CHP Sgt. James Kennedy said.

Jones, of Agoura, apparently sideswiped Montgomery’s car, hit the woman, flattened the call box and veered up the embankment, Kennedy said. Jones drove back down the embankment, got off the freeway and stopped his 1991 Cadillac Sedan de Ville around a corner from the off-ramp, Kennedy said.

Several witnesses to the accident ran to Jones’ car and waited with him until officers arrived to make sure he remained at the scene, Kennedy said.

Montgomery, who friends said moved to Los Angeles from Lynchburg, Va., in 1985, was rushed to Westlake Community Hospital in Westlake Village, where at 2:49 p.m. she was pronounced dead of extensive injuries, a nursing supervisor said.

Kennedy said Jones was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and was being held in lieu of $45,000 bail at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Lost Hills station.

Deputies said Jones would undergo a routine blood test to see if he had been drinking. Jones’ Department of Motor Vehicle records show no drunk driving accidents, arrests or citations.

It is unusual for motorists to be struck at call boxes, Kennedy said. “I’ve been here 25 years, and it’s the first one I can recall,” he said.

In December, a Garden Grove woman was killed as she crossed the Riverside Freeway to her car after using a call box.

Montgomery recently completed computer training courses and aspired to own a computer-oriented business, said Elizabeth Nevarez, who identified herself as Montgomery’s best friend. Montgomery was on her way to her job as a computer technician in Westlake Village when she was killed, Nevarez said.

“She was a wonderful friend,” Nevarez said. “Any time I needed help she was there.”