Posted on 09/24/2003 11:27:29 AM PDT by Inspectorette
Alcohol may have caused fatal crash
9/24/03?br? By HILDY MEDINA
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Alcohol may have been a factor in a weekend accident that killed three teenagers and cost the fourth a leg when a car traveling the wrong way on Highway 101 crashed head on with a minivan near Refugio State Beach.
"We do know that they were drinking," said Christopher Terry, an accident investigation officer with the California Highway Patrol.
Officers lost a race against the clock Saturday morning to prevent the accident.
According to the CHP, a broadcast went out at 12:33 a.m. to law enforcement to look for a wrong-way driver on Highway 101. At 12:36, a second caller reported that a car was speeding and headed southbound on the northbound lanes of the freeway.
Officers raced north on Highway 101, only to find "three cars, two dead bodies and a very critically injured 15-year-old," said CHP Capt. Cliff Williams. "It was horribly tragic."
The wrong-way car had clipped another and then slammed head-on into a Dodge Caravan that was carrying five church members to a youth retreat in Oceano.
Officers investigating the crash were led to a frontage road near Tajiguas Canyon where the wrong-way driver, Angel Martinez, 19, was believed to have been shortly before the fatal accident.
Authorities are waiting for the test results on blood taken from Mr. Martinez, a Mexican national, to determine if alcohol contributed to the accident.
Mr. Martinez, an unlicensed driver, was pronounced dead at the scene. His right front passenger, Jose Luis Jimenez, 19, of Mexico, also died at the scene. A second passenger, Miguel Garcia, 31, of Goleta, suffered a broken femur and remains at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
Kimberly Kimble Gast, 15, an Agoura High School sophomore and passenger in the minivan, died of her injuries at 6 p.m. Saturday. The driver of the minivan, Michael Rivas, 16, of Agoura Hills, had his leg amputated and was in fair condition at the hospital. His father, Mike Rivas, 44, suffered moderate injuries. Another passenger, Taylor Hardman, 15, of Newbury Park, also suffered moderate injuries. Sarah Mitchell, 16, of Agoura Hills, was the only one to walk away from the accident.
All five were members of the Conejo Valley Church of Christ.
Well gee, if we would only give them drivers licenses then there would be no problems.
"I was sitting right there, by the side of the road, when this bottle of....ALCOHOL...jumped up and got behind the wheel. It started driving like a maniac, and CAUSED the crash!"
Amazing how liberals give life to inanimate objects, and ignore the personal responsibility aspect -- which is ALWAYS the cause behind such effects.
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