A large crowd had gathered at the corner of 10th Street and Harvard Boulevard shortly after the crash watching Santa Paula and Ventura County fire department personnel tend to the victims and work the accident scene.Anna Rebar, 6 of Santa Paula, held a small notebook and pencil. “I’m going to write a story about this for [Grace Thille] school,” she said. “A car crashed into a truck and people were hurt really bad. . .”The dump truck, belonging to CNM Paving of Camarillo, sat atop the embankment next to a twisted portion of Bernal’s red Honda. The truck’s driver, Rito Murillo, 40 of Fillmore, had hit the brakes as the Honda crashed through the bushes on the center divider but was unable to avoid the collision, said Officer Webb. Murillo was not injured.The CHP is investigating whether or not Shirley Shabala, 43 of Palmdale, caused the accident by making an unsafe lane change; she has not been cited. She reportedly was pursued by witnesses who tried to persuade her to return to the accident scene but Shabala drove to the Fillmore Sheriff’s Station to turn herself in.Highway 126 is again being known as Blood Alley: A fatal accident on July 26 near Briggs Road killed an Oxnard woman struck by an alleged drunk driver. Robin McDonald-Gwaltney, 46, was helping her son, 20-year-old Jason McMillan, whose car had broken down on the way to his wedding rehearsal in Santa Paula. McMillan received major injuries in the crash, which led to the arrest of a Fillmore man, Sergio Casas, 36, a Caltrans worker wearing the distinctive orange vest, for suspicion of DUI.
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Santa Paula Firefighters assist Maria Bernal following an accident on Highway 126. Her two children Marlene and Bryan were killed in the accident. The car the family was riding in lays upside down on the embankment on the westbound off ramp at 10th street. Photo by Don Johnson |
Two Fillmore children killed in Highway 126 crash
August 03, 2001
Santa Paula News
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula TimesA Palmdale woman pulled over at the Fillmore Sheriff’s Station Monday to report that she believed that she had caused a Highway 126 accident that left two young children dead from massive injuries when their mother lost control of her 1996 Honda Accord which was struck by a dump truck and rolled down an embankment.The accident occurred at about 4:40 p.m. as Maria Bernal, 30 of Fillmore, was traveling eastbound on Highway 126 near 10th Street.Bernal’s vehicle was cut off by another driver and swerved to the shoulder and then she over corrected, said CHP Officer Dave Webb. Bernal’s red Honda shot through a row of oleander bushes in the center divider onto the westbound lanes where her car was struck on the passenger side by a dump truck.Bernal’s car rolled several times before coming to rest upside down on the embankment just above the Highway 126/10th Street westbound offramp.Bernal and her two children were ejected from the car; Officer Webb said all had been secured by safety devices, but one child seat was also thrown out of the vehicle. Child safety seat failure is being investigated by the CHP.Ambulances rushed Bernal to Santa Paula Memorial Hospital and her two children were transported by helicopter to SPMH and then to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, which specializes in pediatric trauma patients. Two-year-old Marlene Bernal died several hours later; her brother, 5-year-old Bryan Bernal, remained on life-support in grave condition until he died Tuesday shortly after noon.Although suffering from moderate injuries, Maria Bernal asked to be discharged from Santa Paula Memorial Hospital on Tuesday to be with her son in Santa Barbara.
