Crash Ends Chase, Kills 2 Carjackers : Simi Valley: Man drinking coffee in a parked rental car runs to call 911 as vehicle is taken at knifepoint in Camarillo.

Two young carjackers died in a high-speed crash Wednesday when the car they had stolen at knifepoint in Camarillo skidded out of control in Simi Valley during a police chase and smashed into another car.

The other driver, William Velasquez, 35, of Port Hueneme, was rushed to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, treated for a cut knee and released.

One of the carjackers was pronounced dead at the accident scene outside the Wood Ranch subdivision, and the other died at Simi Valley Hospital shortly after he was airlifted there by a sheriff’s helicopter.

The county coroner’s office withheld the men’s names pending notification of their families.

Late Wednesday, Ventura County sheriff’s deputies and Simi Valley police were still piecing together the carjacking and chase, which crested the Conejo Grade at more than 80 m.p.h. and ended in a deadly wreck that backed up traffic for miles.

The crime began about 3:25 p.m. in the parking lot of the McDonald’s restaurant at Daily Drive and Las Posas Road, Sheriff’s Sgt. Keith Lazz said.

Two young men walked up to a rental car where Paul Castriades, 53, of Camarillo sat drinking coffee, according to deputies’ reports. One pulled a knife, held it to Castriades’ throat and ordered him out of the car, Lazz said.

The two then hopped into the car--a maroon Nissan Altima--and drove south on the Ventura Freeway, he said. Castriades ran into the restaurant and called the 911 emergency number to report the robbery, Sheriff’s Sgt. David Paige said.

Deputies, who had taken up positions along the freeway, spotted the men traveling southbound at Ventu Park Road at about 3:30 p.m., Paige said.

At least four cruisers gave chase.

Realizing they had been spotted, the carjackers pushed the Altima faster, at times reaching nearly 100 m.p.h. as they turned north onto the Moorpark Freeway toward Moorpark, deputies said.

Several more sheriff’s cruisers joined the chase, and the men exited onto Olsen Road and turned east toward Simi Valley, speeding past the east valley sheriff’s station and weaving between cars, Paige said.

“They were cutting in and out of traffic, just crazy, to the point where our units dropped back to where they briefly lost sight of the vehicle,” Paige said.

By the time the deputies caught up, the Altima had already careened out of control and crashed, he said.

Police determined that the car had skidded across the Olsen Road median in front of the Wood Ranch area at high speed and hit a foot-thick oak tree broadside, snapping it off at ground level.

The car then barreled across the westbound lanes and into the path of a car driven by Velasquez, smashing its front end, and came to rest on the far curb, Paige said.

The carjacker who had been driving lay outside the vehicle, his head bleeding, witnesses said.

Deputies hustled him aboard the sheriff’s helicopter for the ride to Simi Valley Hospital. He was pronounced dead by an emergency room physician shortly after he arrived, said JoLynn de la Torre, a hospital spokeswoman.

Unable to treat the other carjacker who was trapped in the crumpled wreck, deputies gingerly pulled him out a window and tried to revive him, Paige said. The man was pronounced dead shortly thereafter, Paige said.

Randy Hall, 35, a Wood Ranch resident, said the Altima had zoomed past him just before the crash, narrowly missing a car in the next lane.

“I was thinking to myself, ‘There’s going to be an accident,’ and as soon as I topped the hill, I saw all the traffic stopped,” Hall said, as he watched Simi Valley police examine what was left of the stolen car.

“I could see the guy laying on the curb. . . . He was in real bad shape,” Hall said. “You could barely see him breathing.”

Neither of the carjackers was wearing a seat belt, but Velasquez was wearing his, Paige said. Neither car was equipped with an air bag, he said.

Paige said that if the stolen car had not hit the oak tree before hitting Velasquez’s car, the crash probably would have killed him.

Sheriff’s deputies in Camarillo are investigating the carjacking, and Simi Valley police are looking into the crash.

Times correspondent Julie Fields contributed to this report.