Woman Killed in Crash Named

A woman who died when her sedan was trapped beneath burning wreckage on the Ventura Freeway was identified by coroners officials as 73-year-old Sophia Colling of Camarillo.

Colling’s badly burned body was discovered under the rubble of four charred vehicles that collided Tuesday morning and forced the shutdown of the busy northbound Ventura Freeway for several hours.

On Wednesday, investigators were still trying to determine why a driverless road-maintenance truck rolled down an embankment and onto the freeway, triggering the crash, California Highway Patrol officials said.

CHP Officer Robert Stuva said the size and spectacle of Tuesday’s pileup, which set off propane on the maintenance truck, were unusual.

“This was a little out of the ordinary,” Stuva said. “Drivers aren’t expecting a truck to come barreling down the side of the freeway.”

The chain-reaction pileup tied up traffic for more than 10 miles, sent smoke hundreds of feet into the air and forced motorists to jam Camarillo streets Tuesday afternoon.

Colling, who was going shopping, died immediately when her Toyota Camry collided with the other vehicles, officials said.

At her Kenneth Street home on Wednesday, a small group of relatives assisted her husband, Robert, with funeral arrangements.

“It’s very hard for us,” one relative said. “This happened too close to home.”

Stuva said investigators were checking the maintenance truck to see if the parking brake was set or if there was a mechanical malfunction. Crews with the truck’s owner, Fillmore-based Super Seal and Stripe Co., were working near the vehicle at the time of the incident.

Super Seal employees declined to comment on the accident Wednesday, and officials said that no charges had been filed by late in the day.

Officials from the California Department of Transportation said they would close the northbound Ventura Freeway between Las Posas Road and Central Avenue from 5 to 10 a.m. Sunday so the CHP can do more investigative work at the scene.

At the time of the crash, work crews were finishing a project to make concrete sidewalk curbs compliant with federal disability regulations, said Caltrans spokeswoman Margie Tiritilli.

Tiritilli said Super Seal and Stripe Co. was paid $10,000 to complete the project as a subcontractor for Metropole, a Lake Forest-based construction company.

Caltrans and Metropole officials met before work began to discuss all aspects of the project, including safety issues, Tiritilli said.

“The investigation will be a coordinated effort with the [CHP] legal department,” she said. “We will . . . look at if there was anything we could have done.”

A Metropole official said the firm had never had a serious accident with a subcontractor.

“I can’t blame anybody or put my finger on what happened,” said Barry Semnani of Metropole. “We are as shocked as anybody else.”