2 Teenagers Killed in Crash Near Somis

The latest in a string of bloody Ventura County car crashes has taken the lives of two teenagers whose car skidded out of control on California 118 Thursday and slammed into a power pole.

Gina Gruttadaurio, 17, of Somis and Jason Busick, 19, of Camarillo died at the scene a few blocks from Gruttadaurio’s home.

Peter Hisler, who officials said was driving Busick’s Honda Civic, was booked on suspicion of felony drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter with negligence.

Hisler, 21, of Camarillo was being held Thursday at Ventura County Jail on $50,000 bail.

The crash pushed this year’s death toll from automobile crashes in Ventura County to 30. Eleven of the victims were under 21. Ten of the young victims have died since June 1.

“Maybe some of these kids will think about getting in the car when someone is impaired by alcohol,” said Elizabeth Gruttadaurio, Gina’s mother. “I was looking forward to five years from now when mothers and daughters become good friends again, and now we’re not going to have that good time. I hope some of her friends take this to heart and learn from it.”

The crash occurred about 12:40 a.m. in the eastbound lane of California 118 just past Aggen Road, said Officer Robert Stuva of the California Highway Patrol. Hisler, who was traveling at about the 55-mph speed limit, drifted onto a dirt shoulder, lost control of the car and hit the pole. He was treated at a hospital and booked into county jail, Stuva said.

No one in the automobile was wearing seat belts, according to Stuva.

The crash came two days after a 73-year-old Camarillo woman was killed in a fiery four-car pileup on the Ventura Freeway and less than seven hours after 77-year-old Elvira Lopez of Moorpark died in a crash on the Ronald Reagan Freeway in Moorpark.

In addition, three people died in crashes on Ventura roadways last weekend.

Busick was a graduate of Camarillo High School and had just applied for a job at a Camarillo restaurant. He lived part time with his father and stepmother in Camarillo and part time with his mother in Central California.

Thursday morning, he gave the keys to Hisler because a previous drunk-driving conviction had put strict limits on when he could drive, said Mary Busick, Jason’s stepmother.

“He was a good kid who needed a kick in the butt like all teenagers,” Busick said. “I told him a thousand times, ‘Don’t get into a car with someone who drinks and drives.’ It didn’t sink in.”

Gina “was an absolutely beautiful girl,” Elizabeth Gruttadaurio said. “I still don’t know what I could have done unless I put bells and alarms on the door. It scares me that these kids have no sense of their own mortality.”