Oxnard Girl Dies, 2 Hurt in Accident : Crash: A driver passing on the center median of California 126 east of Ventura triggers a three-car collision. Highway is closed for several hours.

A hurried driver trying to pass another car by using the rocky median of California 126 just east of Ventura triggered a chain reaction of collisions Wednesday that killed a 3-year-old Oxnard girl and injured two others, the California Highway Patrol said.

Jazmin Perez was thrown from an older-model Dodge Ramcharger and crushed to death as the vehicle rolled over her before coming to rest upside down in the thick vegetation lining the center divider.

The victim’s mother, Belinda Revelez, 22, and uncle, 13-year-old Danny Perez, suffered minor to moderate injuries, investigators said. They were treated at Santa Paula Memorial Hospital and later released.

Family members grieved and consulted with a county chaplain outside the small emergency room.

The 11:40 a.m. accident occurred about two miles east of Wells Road between Ventura and Santa Paula. A portion of the freeway was closed for several hours as investigators interviewed witnesses.

Two feet from the overturned, collapsed vehicle, a pink, 10-inch, stuffed puppy dog lay in the dust and gravel.

“Nobody was wearing seat belts in that vehicle and there were no [child] car seats,” CHP Officer David Cockrill said.

Officials were still investigating the accident late Wednesday. But they said that Paul A. Callahan, 51, “seemed to be in a hurry” as he traveled east on the freeway toward Santa Paula.

“It appears that he attempted to pass, for whatever reason, on the shoulder of the road,” Cockrill said. “Then he lost control.”

According to the CHP, Callahan’s car struck a car driven by Melodee Anderson, 52, of Santa Paula. Her car then hit the car carrying the 3-year-old victim.

Reached at his east Ventura home late Wednesday, Callahan refused to discuss the fatal crash. “It’s all over the news anyway,” Callahan said. “Just take it for what it’s worth.”

Anderson told investigators that she was driving eastbound on the freeway about 70 m.p.h. when she saw a green Saturn in her rear-view mirror.

“I was afraid he was going to ram me,” she said.

Callahan began flashing his high beams and attempting to pass her, but she failed to change lanes, Anderson said.

“This went on for about two miles and all of a sudden he decides to go around me,” she said. “He was looking right at me.”

CHP investigators said Anderson, who was also driving a Saturn, told them she was squeezed over into the slow lane, where her vehicle struck the Ramcharger being driven by Revelez.

The young mother lost control and the four-wheel-drive vehicle spun wildly, coming to rest between the eastbound and westbound sides of the freeway, the investigators added.

“They had no idea what was happening,” Anderson said. “Now their little girl is dead.”

Neither Callahan nor Anderson was injured and their cars were barely scratched.

The Revelez and Perez families share a two-story, gray-and-white house in a well-kept neighborhood in north Oxnard. It was the only home Jazmin ever knew.

Inside the home Wednesday afternoon, weeping relatives consoled each other while the telephone rang repeatedly.

“I called my dad, he told me what happened,” said Eddie Perez, another uncle to the toddler. “Now I have to call people and tell them what happened.”

Rudy Perez, Eddie’s father, owns tire stores in Oxnard and Santa Paula. Eddie Perez works at the Oxnard center and Revelez works as a bookkeeper at the Santa Paula store.

Gathered around a car radio, Eddie and Danny Perez listened to a news account of the accident that killed their niece.

As a CHP officer gave a rundown of events describing a car swerving onto the center median and attempting to overtake Anderson’s car, the Perez brothers shook their heads in disbelief and disgust.

Home by 4 p.m. after escaping the accident with minor scrapes and bruises, Danny Perez said he never saw the cars off to his left.

“[Belinda] asked me if I wanted to go to work with her,” he said of his reason for being in the car Wednesday morning. “I never saw what happened.”

Investigators spent much of the afternoon sifting through the wreckage and poking around the contents of Callahan’s Saturn. Callahan was interviewed at the Ventura CHP office for three hours before being released.

“We’ll package up our investigation, send it to the district attorney and let them decide whether to file charges,” Cockrill said.

McDonald is a correspondent and Alvarez is a staff writer. Correspondent Eric Wahlgren also contributed to this story.