Stuck Accelerator Blamed in Camarillo Car Crash

A 71-year-old Camarillo woman whose car accelerator may have been stuck ran a red light at a busy Camarillo intersection during rush-hour Monday morning, causing a chain reaction that left five other cars damaged and two other people with minor injuries, authorities said.

The Camarillo woman, Hazel Yee, was in fair condition at St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo with two broken legs and internal injuries, authorities said.

The accident occurred about 8:40 a.m. as Yee drove her 4-year-old sedan north on Ponderosa Drive, Sheriff’s Deputy Jim Wade said.

First she went through two stop signs at Adolfo Road and Appian Way, then through a red light into the intersection of Ponderosa and Las Posas Road at about 45 m.p.h., Wade said. Her car collided with a van driven by Guillermina Lopez, 32, of Camarillo. The van spun 180 degrees and hit another car in the intersection, Wade said.

Yee’s car continued through the intersection, over a curb and into a parking lot, hitting an unoccupied parked car, which traveled 50 feet and smashed into two other parked cars, Wade said.

“It looks like there might have been a problem with the car,” Wade said. “She said she couldn’t stop it.”

Yee told investigators that she did not have any problems when she last drove her car several days ago, Wade said. She was not cited because the accident might have been caused by a stuck accelerator, Wade said.

Lopez and her passenger, Benita Mercado, were treated at St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital and released.