Woman Slightly Injured in Crash With Firetruck

A Ventura County Fire Department truck rushing to a fire crashed into a car on Westlake Boulevard near the Ventura Freeway on Wednesday morning, injuring the car’s driver and forcing a street closure that backed up freeway traffic.

Its sirens blaring, the firetruck was headed along Westlake Boulevard to a fire in Westlake when it collided with a car leaving the southbound side of the freeway shortly after 6 a.m., said Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Rod Mendoza.

The car’s driver, Rosa Cameron, 45, of Simi Valley, had to be cut out of the wreckage and was taken to Columbia Los Robles Hospital, police said. Officials said she was treated and released for minor injuries. Neither the firetruck’s driver, 16-year veteran Kevin Miller, 38, nor the other two firefighters on board, were injured. Miller gave first aid to Cameron after the crash, police said.

Sheriff’s investigators were still trying to determine whether the traffic light at the offramp where the accident occurred was red or green at the time, as well as whether Cameron was turning right or left, Mendoza said.

It was the first accident involving a county fire vehicle in two years, he said.

Sheriff’s deputies closed a section of Westlake Boulevard south of the freeway for more than two hours while investigators surveyed the scene and trucks towed both vehicles.

That caused a moderate traffic jam and several minor accidents on the southbound side of the freeway, as commuters scrambled to get on the freeway and others looked for alternate routes to the office parks off Westlake Boulevard.

Without placing any blame in Wednesday’s incident, Mendoza said it is important for drivers to be looking for emergency vehicles at all times.

The fire was handled by Los Angeles County firefighters.