Freeway Rush-Hour Crash Kills Man, 62

A deadly collision on the southbound Ventura Freeway snarled traffic through Newbury Park at the height of rush hour Tuesday morning and slowed the commute from western Ventura County to a nightmarish crawl.

After the crash that killed a San Luis Obispo County man, frenzied motorists choked surface streets in Newbury Park and near The Oaks mall in an attempt to bypass the accident, which shut down three of the five southbound lanes for four hours.

The accident occurred about 6:35 a.m. when Walden Evermont Muns, 62, of Los Osos suddenly slowed his four-wheel-drive vehicle in the center lane of the southbound Ventura Freeway near its interchange with the Moorpark Freeway, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Authorities said Muns’ truck came to a complete stop and was struck from behind by a sport utility vehicle driven by George D. Dodge, 61, of Newbury Park.

CHP Officer Hector Meza said Dodge, who was traveling about 60 mph, had taken his eyes off the road momentarily to look at something on the right shoulder.

“He looked forward and saw [Muns] too late, then struck the rear of his vehicle before he could apply the brakes,” Meza said, adding that the force of the impact pushed Muns’ vehicle across two lanes of traffic into the median.

Muns and Dodge were both taken to Columbia Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks. Muns was pronounced dead at 7:15 a.m., having suffered massive internal injuries, Ventura County Deputy Coroner Mitch Breese said.

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Dodge remains at the hospital in serious condition, a spokeswoman said. A report of his injuries was not available.

Breese said authorities have begun interviewing witnesses to determine whether Muns had lost consciousness at the wheel before the accident, causing it to stop.

Although medical records show that Muns had no prior history of heart problems or other conditions that could have caused him to lose consciousness, he did suffer from hardened arteries, Breese said.

“That doesn’t mean he had a heart attack, but there’s a possibility he could have,” he said.

Authorities closed the three left lanes of the southbound freeway until 10:38 a.m. while the wreckage was cleared.

Two lanes of the freeway at the Moorpark Freeway interchange remained open to traffic, but the resulting backup surprised many commuters who crested the Conejo Grade into a sea of red brake lights snaking through much of western Thousand Oaks.

“It was stop-and-go and when it was go, it was under 10 mph and bumper-to-bumper,” said Erik La Grange, 27, a cashier at the Wendy Drive Unocal 76 station in Newbury Park. La Grange had attempted to drive to work from his home in Camarillo shortly before 9 a.m.

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Motorists attempting to drive around the accident by taking Hillcrest Drive or Newbury Road were also trapped in gridlock for as long as an hour.

“It was a madhouse,” said Mike Vaughn, 19, a cashier at Newbury Park Chevron near Newbury Road and the Borchard Road onramp to the southbound Ventura Freeway.

“Out here, the intersection was packed with cars trying to get on the freeway,” Vaughn said. “I looked outside and no one was moving.”

About a mile south at the Ventu Park Road overpass, the manager of George Powers Unocal, James Abramyan, 50, said the number of vehicles backed up on nearby Hillcrest Drive was staggering.

“It was unusual traffic--very unusual,” Abramyan said. “We’ve never seen that kind of a load.”