California

Search-and-Rescue Team Member Killed While Helping Crash Victims

The search-rescue team had pulled over on the 5 Freeway to help drivers involved in an earlier crash

A member of Ventura County's search-and-rescue team was killed Saturday morning while he was helping victims involved in a freeway crash north of Los Angeles.

He was identified as Jeff Dye, 50, of Thousand Oaks.

Three other members of the rescue team were injured in the crash on the 5 Freeway near Pyramid Lake. They were en route to a training session at Mount Pinos. 

Details about the injured victims' conditions were not immediately available.

The crash occurred as Ventura County sheriff's deputies were investigating a previous crash in the Pyramid Lake area. Dye and his colleagues had stopped to help people involved in that crash. 

Search-and-rescue teams are highly trained members of the sheriff's department. They are called on to respond to natural disasters and other emergencies in which individual might be trapped or require some other type of aid. 

The death comes nearly three months after the death of Ventura County Sheriff's Sgt. Ron Helus. He was responding a mass shooting at a Thousand Oaks bar when he was fatally shot. 

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