Crash Kills 5 Children, 2 Adults

Seven people -- five of them children -- in a minivan were killed Monday afternoon in a three-vehicle crash at a rural intersection on California 118 west of Moorpark, officials said.

The drivers of the other vehicles were injured, one critically.

California Highway Patrol Capt. Cliff Williams said officers responding to a call about an accident at California 118 and Hitch Boulevard about 1:40 p.m. arrived to find “a horrific scene.”

At one corner of the intersection lay an overturned Toyota minivan, which had been damaged so badly that emergency crews were not immediately able to determine how many people were trapped inside.

It took rescuers two hours to find the last victim.

In a nearby field was a battered Ford van, its male driver unconscious.

Near the center of the intersection was a badly damaged Lincoln sedan, its female driver injured but still conscious.

Both drivers, who had been alone in their vehicles, were taken to nearby hospitals.

Williams said all seven people in the minivan were dead when officers arrived. Five were pinned in the wreckage and two had been thrown clear.

The identities of those involved in the crash were not released, but two women who arrived at the scene later in the afternoon said their loved ones were among the dead.

CHP officers escorted the women from the scene for further questioning.

The Ventura County Fire Department said the dead included the 34-year-old male driver of the minivan and a 42-year-old woman, who had been riding in the front passenger seat.

Also killed were boys ages 10, 9 and 1, a 2-year-old girl and a 3-month-old girl.

It was not disclosed whether the victims were related, but officials said all seven were believed to have lived in the area.

“In 23 years, I’ve been to a lot of fatalities, but I’ve never been to one as horrible as this,” Williams said.

The driver of the Ford van was described as a 29-year-old Ojai man.

He was hospitalized in very critical condition and undergoing treatment at Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks.

The driver of the Lincoln was being treated at St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo. Her condition was not disclosed, but authorities described her injuries as moderate.

The crash forced the closure of California 118 -- a major east-west thoroughfare between Simi Valley and Ventura and the only direct route between Moorpark and rural Somis -- for about five hours.

Williams said the cause of the crash was not immediately clear. Officers were interviewing witnesses hoping they could provide information on the accident.

Joe Luna, a public information officer for the Ventura County Fire Department, said it appeared that the minivan had been westbound when the accident occurred, but the highway patrol said it had not officially determined in which direction, and on which road, the vehicles had been traveling.

California 118 is a heavily traveled, relatively straight two-lane road on which cars often drive at high speeds, witnesses said.

Hitch Boulevard is a narrower two-lane road leading to Moorpark Home Acres, a housing development about a quarter of a mile south.

Hitch Boulevard meets the highway at a T-intersection, with a stop sign for traffic on the boulevard. There are no stop signs or signals for traffic on the highway.

The intersection sits amid farm fields on the western outskirts of Moorpark.

Railroad tracks parallel the highway on the north, crossing over to the south side a few hundred yards west of the accident site.

Times staff writer Eric Malnic contributed to this report.