What should you do in a car crash?
If you’re ever involved in a car crash, here’s what you should do.
Authorities on Saturday found a body down an embankment off rugged Deer Creek Road, where an unusual accident report had prompted a massive search effort for two possible victims days earlier.
One person remained unaccounted for as of Saturday.
The man’s body was found in an area covered by thick foliage, said California Highway Patrol Officer Ryan Ayala.
The victim is believed to be one of three people said to be in a Cadillac Escalade that ran off the roadway around 2 a.m. Sunday, tumbling about 1,000 feet down the embankment. The accident site in Ventura County is about 2 miles above Pacific Coast Highway, where Deer Creek Road climbs into the Santa Monica Mountains amid terrain with hairpin turns and sheer drop-offs.
The accident wasn’t reported to the CHP until around noon on Monday, when a man who said he’d been a passenger in the vehicle told authorities he had climbed out of the wreckage and hiked to a nearby road. After getting home and being taken to the hospital by family, the man said he reported the crash when he wasn’t able to reach the two others.
On Monday and Tuesday, search teams scoured the challenging terrain for signs of the other two. The effort included dogs and a helicopter equipped with thermal cameras. No one was found in the vehicle or nearby hillsides during the search. Authorities weren’t able to account for the other two parties, and neither was reported missing.
On Friday, a missing persons report was filed by family for one of them, Ayala said, prompting another search Saturday. Saturday’s effort was carried out by a Ventura County Sheriff’s volunteer search-and-rescue team whose members rappelled down to the site, Ayala said.
No details about the man found Saturday, including his age and city of residence, were immediately available. His cause and manner of death are being determined by the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office, Ayala said.
No one had reported the third person, believed to be a man, missing as of Saturday, he said.
After Saturday’s discovery, the accident has escalated into a “full-blown open investigation” by the CHP, Ayala said.
Anyone with information is asked to call investigating Officer Ryan Tucker at the Ventura-area CHP office: 805-662-2640.
