Holiday Death Toll Rises to 3 in County
A 42-year-old Santa Paula man was killed in the third fatal traffic accident in Ventura County over the Fourth of July weekend, CHP officials said Tuesday.
Martin Sandford Greene II was driving east on Telegraph Road east of Ventura when he drifted across the westbound lanes and slammed into a concrete wall just east of Olive Road.
The accident occurred about 8:40 p.m. Monday and paramedics tried to treat Greene at the scene before he was pronounced dead at 10:21 p.m., the California Highway Patrol said.
Ventura County Deputy Coroner Zelmira Isaac said investigators do not think alcohol was a factor. She said Greene was apparently on his way home from a bowling alley in Ventura.
In addition to investigating two other fatal accidents over the holiday, CHP officers in Ventura County reported more traffic accidents and made more drunk-driving arrests than in 1992.
During this year’s maximum enforcement period from 6 p.m. Friday to midnight Monday, when extra CHP officers were patrolling the roadways, there were 30 accidents that injured 23 people, the CHP said.
Fifty-four people were arrested in Ventura County on suspicion of drunk driving this year, 24 more than last year.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
