Burial in Mexico Set for Car Crash Victims

An Oxnard couple killed in a weekend traffic crash that spared the life of their only child will be buried in a small town in Mexico where some of the couple’s family members reside, a funeral director said Sunday.

Carlos Mata Orozco, 32, and his wife, Maria Elena, 25, died Saturday afternoon when their car was broadsided by a tractor-trailer loaded with celery. The couple’s 2-year-old daughter, Melissa Sanchez Orozco, suffered major injuries.

At the request of relatives, St. John’s Regional Medical Center employees said Sunday they could not provide additional information about Melissa’s condition. She was being treated Saturday night for a fractured skull and a ruptured liver, according to firefighters.

Later this week--following a rosary at 7 p.m. tonight at Garcia Mortuary in Oxnard--a Catholic funeral Mass and burial will be held in Tlazazalca in the territory of Michoacan, said mortuary owner Roberto Garcia.

“The whole town will come,” Garcia said of the pending funeral. Carlos Orozco’s father and his wife’s mother live in the village and both accident victims were born and raised there, Garcia said.

Maria Orozco, a homemaker and part-time special events organizer, moved to Oxnard more than five years ago. Her husband, a laborer at Paramount Citrus Farming in Somis, moved to Oxnard about 15 years ago, Garcia said.

The couple had been married for five years and were living with their daughter in a mobile home near the crash site at Rice Avenue and Camino del Sol, Garcia said.

Officers believe Carlos Orozco was trying to turn onto Camino del Sol before the crash and failed to yield the right-of-way to truck driver Raul Morales. Morales’ rig slammed into the passenger side of Orozco’s car, police said.

The Orozcos died at the scene. Melissa was pulled from the car by witnesses. She had been sitting in a child safety seat, police said.