Driver, 19, killed on Vineyard Avenue outside Oxnard
This story has been updated.
A Ventura man died in a single-vehicle crash on East Vineyard Avenue outside Oxnard early Thursday, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The Ventura County Medical Examiner's Office on Saturday identified him as Oscar Villafana, 19. The incident was reported shortly after 3 a.m. south of the intersection with Montgomery Avenue, CHP officials said. The site is just outside Oxnard city limits in a commercial and agricultural area.
The man, initially described as a Santa Paula resident by the CHP, had apparently been driving northbound on Vineyard in a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee. No one else was in the vehicle. He allowed the Jeep to veer left, where it left the roadway and hit a utility pole just north of Carnegie Place, authorities said in a news release.
Emergency responders found the driver trapped and unresponsive in the Jeep. Firefighters used heavy equipment to extricate him before he was taken by ambulance to Ventura County Medical Center in critical condition. He was pronounced dead shortly before 4:30 a.m., officials said.
The utility pole was damaged but remained upright. Southern California Edison personnel responded and said it would be replaced, according to the CHP.
Neither alcohol nor drugs appeared to be a factor in the crash, officials said. The CHP's Ventura-area office is investigating.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Driver, 19, killed on Vineyard Avenue outside Oxnard
