2 Seriously Hurt as Car Overturns on Ventura Freeway

Two men were seriously injured Sunday when the car they were in rear-ended another on the Ventura Freeway near Emma Wood State Beach and overturned in the road’s center divider.

They were taken by ambulance to Ventura County Medical Center. Their names were not available Sunday evening.

The accident happened at 7:20 p.m. in the freeway’s crowded southbound lanes. According to the California Highway Patrol, a brown, two-door Toyota had been making sudden lane changes at high speeds for more than a mile when it suddenly shifted into the passing lane and struck a Mitsubishi from behind.

The Toyota then flipped, coming to rest on its roof between the northbound and southbound lanes.

CHP Officer Joseph Davy said police were investigating the possibility the Toyota’s driver was drunk at the time of the accident.

While two men lay injured in the Toyota, two other men got out of the car and walked away, witnesses told police. State parks employees detained two men matching witnesses’ descriptions, Davy said. Pending an investigation, the men could be charged with fleeing the scene of an accident, he said.

“If we can determine that they’ve left their two buddies injured here, there could be charges,” Davy said.

Although ambulance crews were able to remove one of the injured men quickly, the other had his leg pinned under the flipped car. Firefighters from the Ventura County Fire Department used inflatable plastic pads to lift the car from the man’s leg. Fire Department Capt. Charles Sitton said the leg did not appear to be broken.