2 Killed, 5 Hurt in Crashes in Antelope Valley, Reseda

Two people were killed and five were injured in two traffic accidents over the weekend in Reseda and the Antelope Valley.

Before dawn Sunday, two men were killed when their 1987 Chevrolet sedan overturned along the Antelope Valley Freeway, just north of the Red Rover Mine Road exit, the California Highway Patrol said.

The victims were identified as Julian Garcia, 25, and Ernest Gonzales Jr., 23, according to the county coroner’s office.

The men, both from Los Angeles, were traveling north at an unknown speed when their car ran off the road and crashed into a wooden fence, CHP Officer Bruce Ferrier said.

Gonzales, the passenger, was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the vehicle. Garcia died in the car.

The accident was not reported for “a couple of hours,” Ferrier said, until just before 7 a.m., when a passing motorist phoned police.

The cause of the crash was under investigation.

In Reseda, five people were injured Saturday afternoon when a man suspected of driving drunk veered across Saticoy Street into oncoming traffic and started a chain reaction that involved five cars, police said.

Martin Carrillo Castanon, 31, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence by police at the scene, according to Officer Connie Fisher of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Traffic Division.

Carrillo was traveling west on Saticoy near Wilbur Avenue shortly after 5:30 p.m., when he crossed into the eastbound lane, striking a 1986 Acura Integra driven by Grace Garcia, 24.

Garcia was trapped for 10 minutes before she was freed by rescuers and taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center for internal bleeding and facial fractures, Fisher said. Her condition was listed as serious on Sunday afternoon.

Three others, including a 1-year-old boy, were treated at area hospitals and released.

Carrillo was treated for minor injuries at Tarzana Hospital and transferred to Van Nuys Jail.