BUSINESS OWNER DIES IN CRASH : MEDICAL PROBLEM MAY HAVE STRUCK LIMO DRIVER.

Byline: Steven J. Gorman Daily News Staff Writer

The owner of a Northridge-based limousine service died Saturday after the white stretch limo he was driving ran off the San Diego Freeway and plunged down a 73-foot embankment into a eucalyptus tree.

The victim, identified as Vernon Nelson, 63, of Northridge, may have lost control of the car after suffering a stroke, a heart attack or some other medical problem, California Highway Patrol Sgt. Tony D'Ambrosio said.

But the exact circumstances of the accident remained a mystery pending results of an autopsy and toxicology tests, said D'Ambrosio.

Nelson was believed to be on his way to pick up his first customer of the day, and no one else was in the car at the time of the wreck.

The limo was headed south on the 405 Freeway at about 8 a.m. when the vehicle ran off the road just south of Roscoe Boulevard and landed at the bottom of a steep hill behind a printing company.

Witnesses pulled Nelson from the car, and fire department paramedics tried to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead at Holy Cross Hospital, the CHP sergeant said.

Nelson was the owner of First Impression Limousine Service Inc., a single-limo company he took over about five years ago, said Bruce Wilder, the firm's manager.

He described Nelson as an experienced chauffeur who had a good driving record and no history of working under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Wilder said Nelson had no history of heart disease but had been diagnosed with cancer and was on medication to control his blood pressure.

``It appears that he had either a massive heart attack or a stroke, and that when he went off the road and hit a tree, he was already gone,'' Wilder said. The company had been struggling financially for years and Nelson had talked about dissolving the limo service this summer, Wilder said.

Wilder said Nelson lived with a couple of roommates in Northridge and had no family in the area.