BOY, 9, KILLED IN OFF-ROAD CRASH.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Daily News Staff Writer

A 9-year-old Calabasas boy is dead and a family friend faces felony drunk driving and manslaughter charges after a weekend off-roading wreck in the desert near Red Rock Canyon State Park.

Driver Joseph McCarthy, 45, of Calabasas crashed his Jeep while 9-year-old Matthew Mazza and McCarthy's 14-year-old son, Colin, were riding in the back, holding on to the Jeep's roll-bar, California Highway Patrol officials said Tuesday.

``To allow a 9-year-old boy, or a 14-year-old for that matter, to be basically squatting and hanging on a roll-bar and travel at the speed reported, and to be not familiar with the area - people have got to be accountable for their actions,'' said CHP Officer Charles McGuire.

At Chaparral Elementary School in Calabasas, where Mazza was in fourth grade and his younger brother is in second grade, the school district psychologist was brought in to talk with pupils after the long Memorial Day holiday, Principal Mary Sistrunk said.

Fourth- and second-graders were encouraged to talk about the boy in a classroom exercise that school officials call ``Tribes.''

``They sit in a circle and talk about their feelings,'' Sistrunk said.

The elder McCarthy, who broke his shoulder, was hospitalized at Antelope Valley Hospital, where his son was also taken with what CHP officials described as minor injuries. Hospital officials said the family asked that no information be released on their condition.

McGuire said the CHP will ask Kern County prosecutors to file second-degree murder charges against the elder McCarthy, who already faces charges of felony drunken driving, vehicular manslaughter and child endangerment.

Front-seat passenger Chris Cunningham, 29, of Pico Rivera broke his back, CHP officials said. His condition was not available Tuesday.

The four were with a group of friends who had gone Memorial Day weekend to Dove Springs Canyon, a popular off-roading area near Red Rock Canyon State Park, some 110 miles north of Los Angeles.

``From what we gathered in our preliminary investigation it was basically, We're-going-up-in-the desert-and-ride-motors-and-have- fun sort of thing,'' McGuire said.

On Sunday evening, Colin McCarthy walked back to the group's campsite after running out of gasoline on a motorcycle. Mazza, Colin, his father and Cunningham got into a 1965 Willys Jeep to drive back to the motorcycle with a can of gas, CHP officials said.

The elder McCarthy - who officers said had been drinking - drove off at 50 to 60 mph on a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power road, McGuire said. On the dirt road, the Jeep hit a three-foot-deep, 15-foot-wide culvert.

Mazza was thrown 138 feet and suffered a severe head injury, and the Jeep careened for 80 feet through the sagebrush before nosing into the dirt, officials said.

It took about 50 minutes for emergency personnel to reach the injured. A helicopter got there about a half-hour later and flew the dying boy to Antelope Valley Hospital. He was pronounced dead at 9:40 p.m.

A preliminary breath test showed that the elder McCarthy's blood-alcohol level was above the .08 legal limit for driving in California, CHP officials said, although they refused to make public the result until they get confirmation from a more precise blood test.