2 People Killed, 5 Others Injured in Traffic Accidents

Separate traffic accidents claimed the lives of a 30-year-old Los Angeles woman and a 39-year-old Las Vegas man in Ventura County early Monday, authorities said.

Other accidents Monday injured two people and snarled traffic in Camarillo and Simi Valley.

In the most dramatic crash, a car driven by a suspected drunk driver plunged 100 feet off Pacific Coast Highway onto the rocky shoreline near Point Mugu State Park, killing one passenger and leaving three others wandering the roadway in the predawn hours.

Monday’s accidents bring to six the number of traffic deaths in the county this year. Last year’s 75 fatalities brought a heightened awareness of traffic safety, especially on the deadly California 126. But Monday’s accidents took place across the county--from city streets in Camarillo to the Ronald Reagan Freeway in Simi Valley.

The Pacific Coast Highway accident occurred about 3:15 a.m. when four Los Angeles residents driving to Santa Monica got lost and ended up in Ventura County, said CHP Officer Dave Cockrill. They turned around near Point Mugu State Park and were about three miles south of Mugu Rock when the driver lost control of the 1987 Toyota Camry while rounding a curve, Cockrill said. All four were ejected or partially ejected, he said.

A 30-year-old woman passenger was thrown from the car and pronounced dead at the scene, the California Highway Patrol said. The woman’s identity was being withheld until relatives in Mexico could be notified.

Another passenger hitchhiked to Zuma Beach; a third passenger and the driver were found walking along the road hours later, the CHP said.

The driver who gave passenger Graciela Gomez, 24, a ride to Zuma Beach called authorities about 4:45 a.m., Cockrill said. CHP officers brought Gomez to St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, where she was treated and released.

A bicyclist called authorities about 6:55 a.m. after seeing two men who were wet and stumbling along the highway about one mile south of the accident scene near Deer Creek Road. They were taken by helicopter to St. John’s.

The driver, Carlos Munoz, 20, was treated at the hospital and later booked into Ventura County Jail. He was being held on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and of hit-and-run driving with death or injury, jail officials said. Arraignment in Ventura County Municipal Court is scheduled for Wednesday. Bail was set at $20,000.

Passenger Adalverto Quintana, 19, was being treated for a fractured pelvis and other injuries, Cockrill said. Quintana was listed in fair condition.

One of the men told CHP officers that a fifth person was driving the car, but recanted after officers searched the highway in vain for a missing man, Cockrill said.

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In the second fatal accident, a 39-year-old Las Vegas man was killed after losing control of his Lincoln Continental on Vineyard Avenue in El Rio about 3:30 a.m., authorities said.

The man, whose identity was being withheld until his family is notified, was traveling north on Vineyard near Beedy Street. His car veered into the southbound lane and onto the shoulder of the road, hit a power pole and flipped over, the CHP said.

The car rolled over several times and the man was partially ejected. He died at the scene, coroner’s officials said.

In Camarillo, a 55-year-old man was arrested in connection with a traffic accident about 11:40 a.m. after a utility truck and another vehicle collided on Central Avenue, south of Beardsley Road, a CHP dispatcher said. It wasn’t clear which vehicle the 55-year-old man, who was injured, was driving.

Across the county, an accident at about 4:10 p.m. blocked traffic on the Ronald Reagan Freeway east of Stearns Street in Simi Valley for about an hour after a compact car collided with a tractor-trailer, the CHP reported. The driver of the compact car was injured, but details were unavailable.

Staff writers Mack Reed and Scott Hadly contributed to this story.