SPECIAL TEAM PROBES CAUSES OF ROAD DEATHS; CHP AIMS TO GET SOME ANSWERS.

Byline: Kevin F. Sherry Daily News Staff Writer

When two people were killed and a third seriously injured last week in a head-on collision on Santa Rosa Road, the California Highway Patrol quickly sent in Steve Neumann and George Orozco from the CHP's 23-officer Specialized Incident Response Team in the local area.

In the next few months, the two partners from SIRT will investigate every detail and eventually produce a 50-page report for the District Attorney's Office to review.

The report also may help survivors deal with the tragedy.

``This is a huge, huge event in their life,'' said Neumann. ``They want answers, and they want to know what happened. . . . No one's going to heal from something if they don't know all the answers. There's just an expectation that law enforcement will go that extra mile.''

The crash is the 15th investigated by SIRT so far this year, including five in June, then none until the head-on collision on Santa Rosa Road early Aug. 17, when a Toyota Corolla SR5 driven by George David Snider, 41, of Chatsworth crossed the double yellow line and slammed into a Ford Thunderbird LX driven by Arlene Brown, 46, of Oxnard, according to the CHP.

The collision killed Snider and Brown's mother, 85-year-old Sadie M. Green of Simi Valley. Brown survived, but was seriously injured.

The CHP had received reports that the Toyota Corolla was being driven erratically moments before the crash.

``All of a sudden this guy, for no apparent reason, veered into the oncoming lane,'' said Neumann.

So the CHP sent in special investigators for answers. Officers must apply for the 23-member team but get no extra pay for serving on it. It was formed four years ago to add more detail to investigations of major crashes, especially fatal ones, and to give the District Attorney's Office more ammunition to prosecute in vehicular manslaughter cases.

``The reports weren't up to snuff to these high-dollar attorneys,'' Orozco said about those challenged by defense lawyers before the SIRT team was on the scene.

At crash scenes, team members focus not just on the wreckage, but also on weather and roadway conditions. They take pictures to document details that they may forget or overlook at the scene.

``You can never take enough pictures,'' Neumann said.

Later, team members inspect crashed vehicles to determine whether there were mechanical problems.

On Friday, Orozco and Neumann checked out what was left of the two cars from the Santa Rosa Road crash - from the suspension and steering to brake and acceleration pedals.

In its investigations, the team also looks at human factors to discover ``what took place before this crash that might have affected their state of being,'' Neumann said.

In some crashes, he said, a driver might just have broken up with a domestic partner, lost a job or had too much to drink. Occasionally, he said, a driver may be trying to commit suicide. Sometimes a driver suffers a heart attack, a stroke or other illness.

Investigators said they already have learned that just before the 8 a.m. crash Aug. 17, Snider drove wildly into oncoming traffic near the Moorpark Road curve at Read Road, Orozco said. He then overcorrected. The car went onto the right shoulder and then skidded back to the road.

A driver who witnessed the swerving said Snider had a glazed look in his eye, according to Orozco. Because there were no obvious signs of drugs or alcohol at the crash scene, SIRT members suspect there might have been a medical problem and are waiting for test results from the Ventura County Coroner's Office.

But Snider, who suffered from diabetes, would have become lethargic or sleepy rather than agitated or aggressive if he were suffering from a diabetic attack, said Mitch Reese, deputy coroner investigator with the Ventura County Coroner's Office. The coroner's office expects blood-insulin test results soon, Reese said.

Autopsies and other post-mortem tests may confirm a SIRT theory or send the team on another course in an investigation.

Sometimes SIRT members sit in during autopsies to look a body over for white powder around the nose or fresh needle marks, Orozco said. When a pedestrian is killed by a vehicle, victims' bodies are examined to determine whether the signs of impact match a driver's story, he said.

Once evidence has been collected, investigators diagram the scene and reconstruct the accident.

SIRT members may take 40 hours of computer instruction, 40 hours of mechanical-inspection training and a one-month course on accident reconstruction to help them in their specialty.

``Our ultimate goal is to produce the best report possible,'' said Orozco. ``It's basically to satisfy everybody. . . . We keep asking questions, and we keep sending it back for further information.''

The District Attorney's Office reviews crash reports in which charges might be filed.

Bill Redmond, felony supervisor in the District Attorney's Office, has given SIRT members special training on how to identify various vehicular crimes and how to anticipate points likely to be at issue in a criminal case.

``It's impressive, the scope and degree of work that they do,'' Redmond said about the SIRT team. ``It really is a full-spectrum investigation. . . . It allows us to give a more thorough review.''

For example, in February truck driver James Greene of Simi Valley lost control of his vehicle on the Conejo grade and killed motorist Ismael Chaidez. Investigators had questions about the licensing of the driver, the maintenance of the truck and whether the truck descended the grade in neutral gear, Neumann said.

With additional information from a SIRT report, district attorney's officials will decide this week whether to charge green with vehicular manslaughter, said John Cardoza, misdemeanor supervisor in the office.

While team members face some of the county's most gruesome accidents, they say they must learn to keep their emotions under control.

They become so familiar with a case that, Orozco said, mention of the smallest detail will prompt his him to recall an entire investigation.

``I remember all our accidents,'' Orozco said. ``It activates something in my mind that triggers all the details.''