Crash victim ID’d as local paramedic
A 35-year-old motorcyclist killed Wednesday morning following a traffic collision on Highway 126 near Val Verde has been identified as Christopher Ronald Parry, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Department said.
Parry, identified as an emergency medical technician with American Medical Response Inc., was on his way to work when the fatal crash happened.
Parry, a married father of two young children, lived in Ojai and worked in the Santa Clarita Valley.
A fundraising page on GoFundMe.com has been set up for the wellloved, well-respected man as family, friends
and co-workers mourn his death.
“Chris was the first person I met after orientation at AMR,” one co-worker told The Signal in an email.
“He was my field training officer and helped to make my first few weeks at AMR both educational and comfortable,” he said.
“After clearing training he was one of my first full time partners, ever week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. we were hanging out, having fun, and learning lots.
“He was the one that convinced me to become a training officer myself so I could be part of teaching and modeling the AMR way. What I would give to run one just more call with him,” he said.
The crash happened shortly before 5:45 a.m. on Highway 126, just east of the Ventura County line, CHP Officer Josh Greengard said.
The motorcyclist was operating a 2008 Shang Motorcycle scooter, traveling eastbound on Highway 126 in the “number 2 lane” which is the lane next to the fast lane, at an unknown speed, he said.
A driver of a 2006 Dodge Stratus traveling eastbound on the same roadway in the same line directly behind the motorcyclist, he said.
The driver of the Dodge was “traveling at a greater speed than (the motorcyclist),” Greengard said, who “failed to notice” the motorcyclist directly in front of her.
The Dodge rear-ended the motorcycle causing the motorcyclist to be ejected off the scooter and over the Dodge, Greengard said.
The motorcyclist suffered fatal injuries as a result of the collision, he said.
Paramedics with the Los Angeles County Fire Department responded to report of a “motorcyclist down,” dispatched to the crash site near the San Martinez Grande, near Val Verde, Fire Department Inspector Gustavo Medina said.
“They reported one patient with CPR in progress,” Medina said, referring to cardiopulmonary resuscitation efforts used to keep the patient alive.
“No one was transported to the hospital,” he said.
The driver of the Dodge was identified by CHP officers as 50-year-old Yolanda Hernandez, of Santa Paula, Greengard said.
Investigators reported that alcohol is not suspected in the crash.
Both lanes of the eastbound Highway 126 were shut down east of the Ventura County line with traffic diverted away from the scene through the center divider. At 9:45 a.m., a single lane in each direction remained closed.