Alcohol May Be Factor in Crash, Officials Say
Authorities said Monday that alcohol may have been involved in the weekend traffic death of a 20-year-old Newbury Park man who was riding in a car that ran a stop sign in Thousand Oaks.
Jason Matthew Perry was a passenger in a Chevy Sprint driven by Matthew Menzer, also 20 and of Newbury Park. Perry died shortly after the 11:30 p.m. Friday crash.
Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Patti Salas said Menzer was heading west on Felton Street when he drove past a stop sign and broadsided a Honda Civic traveling through the intersection on Wendy Drive.
The other driver, Eric Vanderlip, 24, of Newbury Park, was taken to Los Robles Regional Medical Center, as were Menzer and an unidentified passenger in his car. They were treated for injuries. An autopsy is pending in Perry’s death.
Heavy fog in the area may have contributed to the accident, Salas said, but alcohol was also being considered as a possible factor. No alcohol containers, however, were discovered at the scene, she said.
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