Girl Critically Injured in Single-Car Crash

A 10-year-old Ventura girl was critically injured Sunday morning after she was ejected from a car that had gone out of control on a stretch of Pacific Coast Highway in Oxnard, California Highway Patrol investigators said.

Tiffany Flores suffered severe head and chest injuries.

She was taken to St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, where she was listed in critical condition, authorities reported.

The driver of the car, Debra Giannini, 35, of Ventura, suffered only minor injuries in the accident, which occurred about 7:30 a.m. near the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Rose Avenue.

She was treated at the hospital and later released.

Authorities were unable to confirm Giannini’s relation to the injured girl.

Officials said Giannini had picked up Flores from the girl’s father’s home shortly before the accident.

According to investigators, Giannini was driving north in the right lane when she veered to the left onto the road’s sloped gravel median. When she tried to compensate, Giannini apparently lost control of the Toyota 4Runner and it flipped several times.

The girl was ejected and was found by paramedics lying unconscious several feet away from the crumpled car.

Officers traced the path of the accident by following the deep gouges in the asphalt dug out as the car flipped down the road.

Investigators at the scene were unsure how the accident happened, but speculated Giannini might have fallen asleep. They did not know whether speed was a factor in the crash. An investigation is continuing.

Authorities said it appears no one witnessed the accident, which occurred on a section of the highway bordered on the east by a residential area and on the west by a vacant field.

About a quarter of a mile of Pacific Coast Highway between Channel Islands Boulevard and Rose Avenue was closed for several hours Sunday as investigators tried to determine the cause of the crash, and workers cleaned up the debris that fanned out about 50 feet from the wreckage.