Oxnard Boy, 2, Dies in Freeway Crash

A 2-year-old Oxnard boy died Friday after being ejected out the window of a car driven by his pregnant mother and carrying his 4-year-old cousin.

Isaiah Rios was pronounced dead at 2:04 p.m. at the Ventura County Medical Center, where he was airlifted after the 1:15 p.m. crash on the Ventura Freeway between Seacliff and La Conchita.

A Lynwood doctor who came upon the crash had administered CPR but was unable to save the child, police said.

The boy’s mother, 25-year-old Rosa Rios, and his cousin, 4-year-old Jordon Rios, both of Oxnard, suffered bruises and scrapes. They were taken by ambulance to the same hospital, where they were to be released Friday night, police said.

Family members waiting in the emergency room lobby said it appeared that Rios’ five-month pregnancy was not affected by the accident.

The three had been driving to Carpinteria to have lunch with Isaiah’s father, Brian Ruley, police said. Ruley, 31, had been at his job as a customer service representative for a Carpinteria company.

Initial investigation found that Isaiah was not riding in a safety seat, as is required by law for any child under age 4, CHP Officer Dave Cockrill said.

And neither Isaiah nor his mother was wearing a seat belt, said CHP Officer George Orozco. Jordon, who was sitting behind Isaiah, was belted in, he said.

According to witnesses, Rios was traveling north at about 60 mph when she lost control of her red Hyundai Excel, swerved into a center divider covered with brush and rolled several times, Orozco said.

The car came to rest upright in the southbound lanes about half a mile north of the Seacliff offramp. Black skid marks could be seen on the northbound lanes.

Most of the car’s windows were shattered. Inside the car, police found toys and a pair of shoes, Cockrill said. Neither alcohol nor illegal drugs were suspected as a cause of the crash.

Rosa Rios blamed the crash on mechanical failure, Orozco said. “She said she was driving along on the road and she said it felt like she was driving on gravel, a really rough road,” he said.

“She said the car was pulling right and she countered that by steering left and that’s when the car went into the center divider,” he added.

Orozco said Rios was very shaken and upset at the hospital. She had been on a two-week leave from her job at a Thousand Oaks temporary-employment agency, he said.

Rios contacted Ruley, who is also an Oxnard resident, from the scene of the accident and he arrived minutes before his son was whisked away in a helicopter, police said.

A Ventura County Sheriff’s Department chopper landed on the southbound lanes of the freeway to reach Isaiah. The crash investigation closed one northbound and two southbound lanes of the freeway for more than four hours, Orozco said.

The closure of the southbound lanes caused a backup of more than three miles, with some drivers waiting more than an hour to reach Ventura from Carpinteria, witnesses said.