3 Die in Separate Accidents

Three Ventura County residents were killed in separate motor vehicle accidents Sunday, authorities said.

Monet Marie Bear, 24, of Ventura was driving west on California 126 about 3:45 a.m. when her car drifted off the roadway and landed in a culvert near the Sycamore Road exit.

The car flipped over, came to a rest on its wheels and caught fire, the California Highway Patrol said.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Wareham, who was driving by at the time, pulled passenger Nicholas Kitchens, 21, of Ventura from the car. He was taken to Santa Paula Memorial Hospital with moderate injuries and was reportedly in good but stable condition late Sunday.

But the heat was too intense to rescue Bear, who died in the fire, Wareham said. The car was engulfed in flames within three minutes, authorities said.

It was unclear why Bear’s car had drifted off the road.

The accident is the latest in a string of crashes along California 126. Last month, a woman was killed when she was struck by a vehicle while standing alongside the highway.

Another crash occurred Sunday about 2:20 a.m. on California 23.

Constance Platte, 34, of West Hills was heading north when her sport-utility vehicle drifted into the center divider. The vehicle veered off the roadway, landed 40 feet below on Erbes Road and rolled over several times.

Platte, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the vehicle.

She was taken to Los Robles Regional Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead about 3 a.m. The coroner’s office is awaiting toxicology results.

In a third accident, a 29-year-old Oxnard man was killed shortly after noon, when he crashed his motorcycle in a remote area north of Ojai on California 33, CHP officials said.