California Injury Blog
Three Moorpark residents were reportedly killed after their car crashed into an Oxnard auto parts store early Sunday morning, the Ventura County Star reports. The driver of the car, Celestino Hernandez-Lara, 37, his wife Irma Apostol Reyes, 30 and Alejandrino de la Cruz-Matas, 42, were killed in the auto accident involving a Ford Taurus, the article said.
According to reports, Hernandez-Lara lost control of the Taurus when he failed to negotiate a bend in the road and struck the building. Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the crash. Tests to determine whether drugs or alcohol caused the crash are pending, the article says. Although Hernandez-Lara and Apostol-Reyes were wearing their seatbelts, de la Cruz-Matas who was a passenger in the back seat, reportedly was not buckled up. All suffered from blunt force injuries.
This is one of those crashes we see on the freeway on our way to work or hear about in the news. There are always many questions hanging over an incident such as this one. The most significant question of course is: What caused this auto accident? In a case such as this where one vehicle was involved and all three occupants of the car died, there is very little information about the circumstances such as speed or what led to the crash.
The reasons could range from an exhausted or distracted driver to a mechanical or an inherent defect in the car. We don’t know if the driver was driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. We don’t know if there was a dangerous condition on the roadway that caused the driver to lose control. This is obviously a tragic, heartbreaking incident and our deepest condolences go out to the families of the crash victims.
Officials are still investigating the crash. But the family members of the victims may consider retaining the services of a personal injury attorney, who will help them conduct an independent investigation of the crash. Local law enforcement often does not have the time or resources to conduct a thorough investigation on auto accident cases.
An experienced and knowledgeable personal injury attorney will also advice family members to preserve the vehicle, which would become the main piece of evidence in an auto product liability case, if there is later determined to be a defect in the vehicle.