1 Teenager Killed, Another Critically Injured in Crash

One teenager was killed and another was seriously injured Thursday when their speeding car swerved off a road, slammed into a tree and split in two.

The driver of the 1991 black Honda Accord was killed in the 5:40 p.m. crash. The front-seat passenger was flown by helicopter to Ventura County Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition late Thursday, said sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Chuck Buttell.

Authorities would not identify either young man, except to say they were in their late teens. No one else was involved in the crash.

The Honda was traveling west between 75 and 80 mph on Pederson Road just past Radcliffe Road when the driver lost control on a slight downhill curve, investigators said. The posted speed limit for the street is 40 mph.

The car then skidded at least 200 feet before it jumped the curb and slammed into a thick pine tree. The tree, which is about a foot from the curb, sheared the car in half. The front end of the car was separated from the back at the windshield.

The back section of the car, with both teens still inside, then careened 40 feet before smashing into a second pine. Glass, metal, the engine block, air bags and the steering wheel lay strewn on the side of the road between the two sections of the mangled wreck.

“Trees are unforgiving; they don’t move,” Buttell said.

The crash was deafening, said neighbors on the two-lane street.

Katie Downey, a retired Los Angeles City Fire Department paramedic, was one of the first neighbors on the scene. She said when she got to the crash site, it looked as if the teen who died had hit the second tree face first.

She said she worked furiously to keep the other teen alive. “I wish I could have done more. All I had was my hands. I did the best I could,” she said.

Emergency crews arrived within minutes and closed down Pederson between Radcliffe and Olsen roads, disrupting traffic in the area for more than an hour.

Paramedics put the survivor into an ambulance and drove him a short distance to an awaiting sheriff’s rescue helicopter at Pederson and Olsen.

Buttell said investigators were unsure why the driver was going so fast, and he said it was too early to tell whether alcohol or drugs played a role in the crash.