5-Week Toll Reaches 11 as Crash Kills 2 Men on California 126

A Simi Valley man and a Ventura man became the latest fatalities on California 126’s notorious “Blood Alley” Saturday, one day after officials pleaded for more safeguards on the dangerous highway.

Eleven people have died on the road between Ventura and the Golden State Freeway in the past five weeks, including eight on the “Blood Alley” stretch east of Fillmore, where construction work is underway to widen it to four lanes.

Authorities said the four-vehicle crash occurred about 6:45 a.m. Saturday when a speeding westbound Ford Explorer driven by Frank Robert Salcido, 32, of Simi Valley drifted into the oncoming lane as it rounded a curve about 1 1/2 miles west of the Los Angeles County line.

Salcido’s vehicle careened into a Ford Mustang driven by 19-year-old Sergio Cacho-Zamora of Ventura. The impact tore open the car and ripped away the seat belt worn by Cacho--Zamora, who was on his way to work, authorities said. Cacho-Zamora, who was ejected from the vehicle, died instantly, authorities said.

The Mustang plowed backward into a Chevrolet Lumina, which plunged down a 35-foot-high embankment and came to rest on its roof next to a citrus orchard.

One of that car’s two occupants, 44-year-old George Gamboa of Ventura, was treated for neck and back pain at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital and released, authorities said. The other person did not require medical attention.

Salcido’s out-of-control Explorer continued down the highway, where it struck a skidding pickup whose unidentified driver had tried to brake, said Dave Cockrill, a California Highway Patrol spokesman. The pickup also rolled backward down the embankment, but authorities said the motorist walked away without a scratch. He retrieved tools from his truck and continued on to his construction job with friends, Cockrill said.

The Explorer came to rest on its roof in the highway’s westbound lane, ejecting Salcido, who was not wearing a seat belt, Cockrill said. Salcido died at the scene.

The highway was closed between California 23 in Fillmore and Castaic Junction at the Golden State Freeway for seven hours as investigators examined the scene. Wreckage was strewn over about 40 yards of the roadway.

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Alcohol is suspected of playing a role in the crash.

Salcido, an operator with Pacific Bell, had spent Friday night drinking with a friend in Newhall, Cockrill said. Minutes before the crash, truckers had alerted fellow motorists via CB radio that a vehicle matching the description of Salcido’s was driving erratically at speeds of 70 to 80 mph.

The 2.7-mile section of California 126 where the crash occurred is one of two sections east of Fillmore being widened from two to four lanes in an effort to make the road safer.

Completion is not scheduled until December 1998.

Another 5.4-mile stretch from Fillmore to Powell Road should be finished in December.

Concrete barriers line one side of the highway and the embankment lines the other on the portion of roadway where the crash occurred, but Cockrill said excessive speed rather than the construction played a role in the crash.

The accident occurred a day after about two dozen local officials appeared before the Ventura County Transportation Commission to ask that construction work be speeded up to cut the carnage.

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Law enforcement officials promised increased police patrols, as well as more safety precautions and a stepped-up public awareness campaign. Other tactics to cut the number of crashes will range from reduced speed limits to more traffic safety signs.

But an angry Fillmore Mayor Roger Campbell said Saturday that this isn’t enough.

Campbell said he intends to call local state legislators Monday morning to demand emergency legislation to free money for 24-hour police patrols and to work on the road round-the-clock if necessary. He also wants the highway converted to allow only alternating one-way traffic for the duration of the construction.

“We need the damned roadway finished faster than two years from now,” said Campbell, who has lived in Fillmore his entire life. “I want it done in half the time. There’s never been a rash [of deaths] like this. You can’t just put it on just drivers. It’s the road. It’s the construction. It’s a combination of things.

Even the firefighters and paramedics who routinely respond to accidents are being affected by the horrific crashes.

Scott Sheldon, a paramedic with MedTrans Ambulance, had driven along the stretch of road where the crash occurred just minutes before. When he got to work in Fillmore, he was immediately dispatched to treat the crash victims.

“If something had delayed me at home, my kids or whatever, that could have been me,” the 49-year-old Reseda resident said. “These two folks made my sixth and seventh fatality since a day or two before Christmas. . . . I think I’m going to change my route.”

Saturday’s crash was at least the third this week alone.

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Two motorists walked away from a head-on crash in a construction area Tuesday, and a sheriff’s deputy was slightly injured after his cruiser was rear-ended Thursday afternoon in a construction zone.

“This highway, with everything going on, doesn’t leave any room for human error,” Ventura County Fire Department Capt. Tony Salas said.

Truckers who regularly drive the highway and were forced to wait for the road to be cleared also want the construction finished quicker.

“I don’t know how many lives it’s going to take for them to do it any faster,” said 53-year-old Santa Paula resident Tom Campbell, who drives his rig along California 126 as many as four times a day. “Every day, you get these idiots out here. The road isn’t that bad; it’s just that people don’t have common sense.”

Correspondent Scott Steepleton contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC) Ventura County edition

List of Victims

Eleven people have died on California 126 in the last five weeks.

Saturday--Two men died in a head-on collision involving four vehicles east of Piru. Killed were Frank Robert Salcido, 32, of Simi Valley and Sergio Cacho-Zamora, 19, of Ventura.

Jan. 6--Robert William Thompson, 81, of Pasadena, died after his car smashed into a parked Caltrans steamroller east of Piru.

Dec. 26--Two sisters from Ventura, 8-year-old Andrea Tello and 11-year-old Katie Tello, died after a head-on crash east of Santa Paula. Four others, including an infant, were injured. The Port Hueneme motorist who allegedly caused the crash was arrested on charges of vehicular manslaughter a week later.

Dec. 23--A head-on collision claimed the lives of two men east of Piru near the Los Angeles County line. Killed were Mark Dees, a 63-year-old Moorpark attorney, who died at the wheel of his Pontiac Fiero, and Phillip Bertelsen, 58, of Santa Barbara, whose chest was crushed.

Dec. 17--Allen Wilson, 50, of Fillmore died after he was struck by a tractor-trailer truck as he crossed the highway on foot just east of A Street.

Dec. 9--Three Fillmore men died in a collision with a big-rig truck on a slick road two miles outside the Santa Clarita city limits in Los Angeles County. Killed were Isidro Rangel Cardoso, 35, Arturo Enriquez, 23, and Jose Ramirez, 30.