Boy, 5, Injured in Accident Is Said to Be Near Death

A 5-year-old Fillmore boy was on life support Tuesday from injuries suffered the day before in a car crash in which his baby sister was killed and his mother critically injured.

Bryan Bernal was reportedly near death at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, where he was taken after the Honda Accord his mother was driving was broadsided by a dump truck on California 126 in Santa Paula. Cottage Hospital specializes in pediatric trauma cases.

Police are still trying to determine the cause of the accident.

Maria Bernal, 30, was shuttling her two children home to Fillmore from a doctor’s appointment in Ventura when the accident occurred about 4:45 p.m. Monday, a relative said.

Bernal was eastbound when her car was reportedly cut off by another vehicle and she lost control. Her car shot across one lane and through a row of oleander bushes on the center divider before being struck by the westbound dump truck, authorities said.

Her 2-year-old daughter, Marlene, was airlifted to St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, where she was pronounced dead late Monday.

Funeral services, being handled by Camino del Sol Memorial Center & Funeral Home in Ventura, are pending.

The Bernal family has authorized the donation of Bryan’s organs, and he was being kept alive until the organs could be harvested, according to a Cottage Hospital spokeswoman.

Maria Bernal, meanwhile, remained in critical but stable condition in the intensive care unit at Santa Paula Hospital, recovering from internal injuries.

“We all just can’t believe that little girl is gone,” said one of many relatives and friends who surrounded the young mother at the hospital.

Bernal’s husband and the children’s father, Daniel, 27, could not be reached Tuesday.

The driver of the Mazda 626 sedan who authorities believe made an unsafe lane change that may have triggered the crash was identified by California Highway Patrol spokesman Dave Webb as Shirley Shabalala, 43, of Palmdale.

After the accident, Shabalala drove to the Sheriff’s Department substation in Fillmore, and was visibly shaken by what had happened, Webb said. She was detained for questioning, but has not been charged, Webb said.

Authorities are trying to determine whether the lane change caused the accident or whether Bernal overreacted, Webb said.

CHP investigators believe both children were strapped correctly into their child-safety seats, but the devices did not prevent them from being ejected because they are only designed to handle front-end impacts, Webb said.

“They were beautiful kids,” said Fillmore resident Ramiro Bernal, Daniel’s older brother.

Maria and Daniel Bernal both work at Technicolor, the Camarillo-based maker of videocassettes, CDs and DVDs, Ramiro Bernal said.