Woman Hit, Killed While Waiting at Call Box : Accident: Driver of the car that struck her on the Ventura Freeway is arrested.

AGOURA HILLS —  A 30-year-old woman whose car broke down was struck and killed by an auto Wednesday as she waited for help beside an emergency call box on the Ventura Freeway in Agoura Hills.

The driver of the car that hit her was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter.

Kathryn (Kami) Montgomery, a Los Feliz district resident, pulled her white Volkswagen bug onto the shoulder of the westbound Ventura Freeway near Liberty Canyon Road about 2 p.m. after experiencing engine trouble, California Highway Patrol officers said.

About five minutes after making a call for help on the emergency phone, she was struck by a car driven by Owen Kelchner Jones, 59, CHP Sgt. James Kennedy said.

Jones, an Agoura resident, apparently sideswiped Montgomery’s car, hit the woman, flattened the call box and veered up an embankment, Kennedy said. Jones drove back down the embankment, exited the freeway and stopped his 1991 Cadillac Sedan de Ville around a corner from the off-ramp, Kennedy said.

Several witnesses to the accident ran to Jones’ car and waited with him until officers arrived to make sure he remained on the scene, Kennedy said.

Montgomery, who friends said moved to Los Angeles from Lynchburg, Va., in 1985, was rushed to Westlake Community Hospital in Westlake Village, where she was pronounced dead at 2:49 p.m. due to extensive injuries, a nursing supervisor said.

Kennedy said Jones was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and was being held in lieu of $45,000 bail at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Lost Hills station.

Deputies said it was not known whether he had been drinking. “We don’t know that he was drunk,” Kennedy said, and the results of a blood test will not be available for several days.

According to Department of Motor Vehicle records, Jones has no record of drunk driving accidents, arrests or citations.

It is unusual for motorists to be struck at call boxes, Kennedy said. “I’ve been here 25 years and it’s the first one I can recall.”

In December, a Garden Grove woman was killed as she tried to cross the Riverside Freeway to her car after using a call box on the opposite side of the roadway.

Montgomery enjoyed dancing, swimming, cooking and most of all, talking with friends in her high-pitched Virginia accent, said Elizabeth Nevarez, a friend of Montgomery’s who once shared a home with her.

Montgomery had recently completed computer training courses and aspired to own a computer-oriented business someday, Nevarez said. She was on her way to her job as a computer technician in Westlake Village when she was killed, Nevarez said.

“She was a wonderful friend. Any time I needed help she was there.”

“She was always full of life, really vivacious,” said Marie Nevarez, Elizabeth’s mother. “You felt good around her . . . she was always up.”