Two men died and a third was critically injured Friday in a two-vehicle, head-on crash involving a wrong-way driver on Pacific Coast Highway near Point Dume.
The crash was reported to the Sheriff's Department at 12:42 a.m.on PCH near Zuma View Place, Lt. Andy Rosso of the sheriff's Malibu-Lost Hills Station said.
A witness said a Saturn car was eastbound on the westbound side of the road when it collided with a westbound Mustang, Rosso said.
Sources told NBCLA that the man driving the Saturn was from Minnesota and had a brother who had passed away a week prior. He also allegedly had a history of drinking and using drugs.
911 had received reports of the man driving on the wrong side of the road earlier in the morning.
Both cars may have been traveling at a high rate of speed when they collided. The Saturn burst into flames and burned with the driver inside it, Rosso said. The man driving the car died at the scene. The man driving the Mustang was also pronounced dead at the scene, Rosso said.
The other man in the Mustang, identified as 24-year-old Jesus Saenz, was flown by helicopter to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he was in critical but stable condition with compound fractures of his left arm and leg and a concussion, according to the sheriff's department. Both men were military personnel assigned to the Port Hueneme Navy Base in Oxnard, the sheriff's spokesman reported.
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The Mustang did not catch fire, a video news crew at the scene reported.
PCH was closed in both directions for the crash and death investigations, a closure that continued past daybreak. The names of the dead were withheld, pending notification of relatives.
