2 Sisters Killed in Head-On Collision

Two young sisters died Thursday in a head-on crash near Santa Paula, bringing to seven the number killed this month on a stretch of California 126 that has long been known as “Blood Alley.”

The collision occurred at 6:45 a.m. about a mile east of Santa Paula when a sedan driven by 30-year-old Juan Ramirez of Port Hueneme crossed into the eastbound lanes and ran head-on into a minivan driven by 37-year-old Diane Tello of Ventura, California Highway Patrol Officer Steve Reid said.

Tello’s car flipped and came to rest on its roof in the westbound lanes. Eight-year-old Andrea Tello and 11-year-old Katie Tello died at the scene, according to a spokeswoman from the Ventura County medical examiner’s office.

Diane Tello was taken to Santa Paula Memorial Hospital with lacerations, neck and back pains, and was listed in good condition Thursday night. She had been trapped upside down for about 20 minutes before Ventura County Fire Department personnel freed her.

Tello’s husband, Mike, was not in the car.

Ramirez suffered facial cuts and was listed in fair condition at Ventura County Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.

His passenger, 20-year-old Norma Fuentes of Port Hueneme, was in critical condition in the medical center’s intensive care unit with multiple fractures, chest and head injuries. Their 10-month-old son, Jesus, was treated at Santa Paula Memorial Hospital, transferred to Ventura County Medical Center, treated and released.”

CHP Officer Dave Webb said the child-safety seat in which the boy was riding saved his life.

Everyone in both cars was wearing safety restraints, officials said.

Authorities do not know why Ramirez’s car swerved into oncoming traffic, but alcohol and drugs were ruled out as contributing to the accident, Reid said.

CHP officers said Ramirez told onlookers that he had left Reno at 10 p.m. Wednesday and had been driving all night.

No arrests had been made or citations issued as of Thursday night, Reid said.

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The incident closed the highway in both directions from 7 a.m. until 1:30 p.m., with traffic diverted around the crash scene via South Mountain Road.

After the accident was cleared, counselors were available to talk to emergency personnel, many of whom have young children, a paramedic supervisor said.

Thursday’s crash was a reminder for many of just how dangerous California 126 has been over the years.

Earlier this month, three field workers died when their car collided head-on with a big-rig truck just east of the Los Angeles County line. Two other men died Monday in another head-on collision west of the county line. All but one of the victims were from Ventura County.

In the past decade, the state Department of Transportation has widened much of the highway between Santa Paula and the Golden State Freeway in Los Angeles County.

The stretch of road where Thursday’s accident occurred had been widened to four lanes, with a turning lane in the middle, about 10 years ago.

While the widening projects, two of which are underway in the Fillmore and Piru areas, have been perceived as making the highway safer, Thursday’s accident had some people wondering whether safeguards such as cement dividers in the center of the highway are also needed.

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Among the proponents of the dividers is Fillmore Mayor Roger Campbell, a member of the Ventura County Transportation Commission, a board of city and county representatives that oversees transportation projects in Ventura County.

“I have always wanted cement barriers,” Campbell said Thursday. “But in 1994, Caltrans and the Highway Patrol and I came to an agreement that we would try Botts dots for a couple of years, in all the four-lane areas, to make what I refer to as a sound barrier.”

The idea is that a driver who drifts into another lane will hear his or her tires as they cross the reflectorized dots and have enough time to get back into the proper lane, Campbell said. The dots were installed in the summer of 1995.

“In this instance, it didn’t work,” he said. “I think it’s time to look at installing dividers again.”

Campbell will formally make his proposal at the Jan. 10 meeting of the Transportation Commission.

Not all are convinced that dividers will decrease fatalities.

“We’ve had investigations into the feasibility of putting walls in the median,” Caltrans spokesman Rick Holland said. “At the point when that was initiated, we thought it might cause more of a problem than it would solve,” because cement dividers could bounce cars back into traffic lanes.

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Holland said excessive speed is often the cause of accidents and advised those who use the highway to slow down.

“You have to take your time; you have to slow down out there,” he said. “The posted speed limit is 55. A lot of people are ignoring the speed limits.”

State Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-Santa Barbara), whose district includes parts of Ventura County, has been working to make the highway safe for more than 10 years, dating back to when he served as the area’s assemblyman.

Contacted at his home Thursday, O’Connell pledged to continue making the highway safe.

“The fight for highway improvements has been a marathon battle,” he said. “Highway 126 is a major east-west corridor in Southern California. With the activity at the harbors, with the growth in the Santa Clarita Valley, with more people commuting and people commuting longer distances, it’s just imperative that we seek the necessary improvements on 126.”

That includes seeing that the widening projects continue.

“Having grown up in Ventura County, I know we have to have four lanes all the way” from the Golden State Freeway to the Ventura Freeway interchange,” he said.