Four-Vehicle Collision Kills Woman, 33, and Daughter

Investigators were trying Monday to determine the cause of a four-car collision on California 126 that claimed the lives of a Palmdale mother and her daughter and injured as many as nine others.

Killed in the 5:18 p.m. crash Sunday were Carmen Maria Ortega, 33, and her daughter, Jessica Lorraine Ortega. N.

No evidence of drugs or alcohol-use were found and the driver of a Nissan sport truck that slammed into three oncoming cars has not been cited, a spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol said.

“We just don’t know at this point what caused him to cross over the center divider,” said CHP spokeswoman Staci Morse.

The crash occurred when the sport truck, crossed the center divider near Timber Canyon Road between Fillmore and Santa Paula and collided with three eastbound cars, causing the Ford van in which the Ortega family was traveling to flip, Morse said.

Other members of the Ortega family, Peter A. Ortega, and daughters Veronica, 8, and Erica, 10, were treated and released from Santa Paula Memorial Hospital.

Autopsies on the mother and daughter were being completed Monday, said Deputy Coroner Mitch Breese.

“I don’t know what it is about that highway,” Breese said. “This was a bad one. (The accident) was probably one the worst ones I’ve seen in several months.”

The sport truck’s driver, James Johnson, 18, and passenger Michelle Moreno, 19, both of Oxnard, were listed in stable condition at Ventura County hospitals Monday.