Oxnard Man Killed in Collision With Van

A 25-year-old Oxnard man was killed instantly Tuesday when his pickup truck collided with a government van at 5th Street and Las Posas Road in south Camarillo, authorities said.

Pedro Rodriguez suffered fatal neck and chest injuries in the 3:40 a.m. crash, according to the coroner’s office.

Funeral arrangements were pending.

Rodriguez was driving a Ford Courier that was broadsided by a van registered to the U.S. Navy and driven by serviceman Joshua Friedman, 35, of Escondido, said CHP Officer Dave Cockrill.

Friedman suffered a fractured leg and cuts on his head and arms, Cockrill said. He was in stable condition Tuesday night at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, hospital officials said.

Friedman, a paramedic for the Navy’s sea, air and land (SEAL) program at Coronado, was driving to training at Point Mugu when the crash occurred, said Lt. Cmdr. Jim Fallin, a Navy spokesman.

Friedman has been in the Navy 15 years, 13 of them in the SEAL program.

Cockrill said both men were wearing seat belts and that officers are trying to determine which driver failed to stop for a red light at the intersection. There were no witnesses to the crash and no one was speeding, Cockrill said.

Both vehicles were heavily damaged in the collision, which occurred in a farming area south of Camarillo Airport, Cockrill said.