Dangerous 118 Stretch Claims Another Victim

A winding stretch of California 118 near Somis claimed its fourth victim in two weeks Wednesday: a 65-year-old Camarillo man who died after he lost control of his compact car, which plummeted into a steep ravine.

California Highway Patrol investigators said Robert M. Sampson was killed instantly when his 1979 Honda Civic hatchback spun wildly off the roadway and slammed into a eucalyptus tree. He had been scouting local nurseries for roses to include in a floral arrangement he was making for a friend’s funeral.

Rescue personnel were forced to pry open the top of the vehicle to remove the victim’s body from the wreckage after a tow truck dragged the car up to the roadside.

Senior Deputy Coroner Craig Stevens said Sampson died from massive head injuries.

The single-car crash occurred at 10:15 a.m., about three-quarters of a mile east of Santa Clara Avenue. Traffic was closed along a two-mile section of the highway for several hours while the investigation was conducted.

Sampson’s car plunged into a ravine just a few hundred yards from the scene of a Dec. 13 accident that killed a young mother, her 2-month-old daughter and the girl’s aunt.

That family’s car fishtailed around a nearby curve and smashed head-on into an oncoming 18-wheel truck.

“This is the second [deadly accident] I’ve been to here in two weeks,” tow truck driver Shawn Smith said at the crash site Wednesday. “It kind of gets to you.”

The curving section of road is part of a two-lane stretch that traffic engineers have long planned to widen. But the $75-million project, which would run from Moorpark to Saticoy, has been pushed back to 2016.

A spokeswoman at the state Department of Transportation office in Los Angeles said that the four fatalities this month will trigger a review of plans to upgrade the highway. “Caltrans traffic engineers will be investigating the situation and seeing what measures might be taken to improve safety along the road,” spokeswoman Pat Reid said.

In Wednesday’s accident, CHP investigators said Sampson was driving westbound on California 118 too fast for road conditions. He hit a series of S-curves at an unknown speed and lost control of the green, two-door Honda.

“The witness said he saw him drive off the road into the dirt and lose control,” CHP Officer David Cockrill said. “He was coming too fast, way too fast.”

The speed limit along that portion of California 118 is 55 mph, although an advisory limit of 35 mph is posted just east of the S-curves, CHP investigators said.

“I don’t know if a seat belt would have helped him or not,” Cockrill said. “But he didn’t have one on.”

Even without the four fatalities along the highway this month, the road has a history of bloodshed.

More than 2,300 traffic accidents have been reported since 1990 on the Ventura County portion of the highway, according to CHP statistics. Of those, more than 1,000 crashes have resulted in injuries and at least 34 people have died.

Sampson was a retired interior decorator who made floral arrangements part time. He traveled extensively and cultivated an elaborate garden outside his Leisure Village home.

Wednesday morning he was hunting for roses to include in an arrangement he was preparing for a friend who had recently passed away, said his widow, Huldah Sampson.

“It’s typical of him because he was always doing something for someone else,” she said. “He always did things to help people out.”

Sampson had visited a Somis nursery just before the accident, but was turned away empty-handed because all of its roses had been sold to organizers of the Tournament of Roses Parade to be held next week in Pasadena.

“He loved to garden,” Huldah Sampson said. “He grew a little bit of everything. People would always stop by our house and admire our garden.”