Half-Inch of Rain in 1st Storm of ’98

The first storm of 1998 dumped up to half an inch of rain over the weekend in some parts of Ventura County, soaking crops but causing no major problems.

Forecasters say the county will dry out as the week goes on, with clear and breezy skies expected by Friday.

Police officers responded to several minor traffic accidents starting Saturday, none of which resulted in serious injuries.

Jim Hall, a supervisor with American Medical Response in Thousand Oaks, said that the number of injury accidents did not seem to be higher than usual.

But two AMR ambulance drivers based in Ventura County became accident victims themselves Sunday when their vehicle was rear-ended on the Ventura Freeway at Parkway Calabasas in Los Angeles County, said Hall.

The crash occurred about 1:30 p.m. as the paramedics, whose names were not released, were in the back of their ambulance attending to someone involved in an earlier traffic accident.

Scattered showers were expected overnight, and today’s forecast calls for patchy morning fog giving way to mostly sunny skies, forecasters say. Highs for today and Tuesday should be in the lower 60s.