16-Year-Old Dies in Car Accident

A 16-year-old Oxnard girl died early Monday morning after the car she was riding in rolled down a 60-foot hill on Pacific Coast Highway just north of Yerba Buena Road.

Angie Barcenas died at the scene about 1:24 a.m. after being thrown from the car driven by Juan Miguel Martinez, a 21-year-old, also from Oxnard, said Officer Dave Cockrill.

There were three other youths in the car. Two were injured--Rene Perez(cq) 18, of Oxnard, and Veronica Sotelo(cq), 15, of El Rio, who was admitted into St. John’s Regional Medical Center in serious condition. Perez was treated for minor injuries and released.

Neither Martinez nor another passenger, Gloria Cardenas, 17, of El Rio, were hurt in the accident.

Barcenas and Sotelo were not wearing seat belts, Cockrill said.

Martinez was arrested after the accident and is being held at the Ventura County Jail awaiting arraignment on vehicular manslaughter charges, Cockrill said.

“We don’t know if this was a complete accident, but the law doesn’t state it has to be a deliberate act for someone to be charged with manslaughter,” Cockrill said.

Although he had been drinking, Martinez was not legally drunk at the time of the accident, officials said.

Martinez lost control of his car while traveling north on Pacific Coast Highway when he swerved to the left and hit a call box, officials said. The impact of the crash flipped the car, which rolled down a 60-foot hill, Cockrill said.

It is the fourth traffic fatality in Ventura County since Friday, he said.