A Newbury Park neighborhood group is renewing its demand for traffic signals at intersections where speeders have been clocked going nearly twice the posted limit, pointing to a fatal 2025 crash that killed an elderly couple as proof the danger hasn't gone away. The group, called We Live Here, says it wants safety measures at multiple intersections throughout the Dos Vientos neighborhood, and its push has intensified more than a year after Maria and Alejandro Ramirez were killed at Via Las Brisas and Calle Del Prado.
According to the Thousand Oaks Acorn, We Live Here is led by Dos Vientos resident Jennifer Betts and was started by Betts and other residents frustrated by what they see as years of inaction. The newspaper reports that when Thousand Oaks required Dos Vientos developers to help pay for seven traffic signals back in 1998, only three were ever built — leaving Via Las Brisas and Calle Del Prado, Via Grande, Paseo Santa Rosa, and Via Rio and Calle Del Prado without the signals originally planned for the area.
Those gaps became tragic on May 6, 2025, when a crash at Via Las Brisas and Calle Del Prado in Newbury Park killed 73-year-old Maria Ramirez and 77-year-old Alejandro Ramirez, according to KTLA. Investigators said the driver, Neil Liam Reb, was traveling at nearly twice the posted 45 mph speed limit at the time. The Ventura County Sheriff's Office says deputies responded to the intersection at roughly 4:04 p.m. that day for an injury collision and determined two vehicles had collided in the middle of the intersection.
A Guilty Plea and a Sentence That Angered Families
Reb pleaded guilty on Aug. 28, 2026, to two counts of felony gross vehicular manslaughter, KTLA reported. On Oct. 9, 2026, he was sentenced to just one year in county jail, a punishment prosecutors described as light given the circumstances. The Acorn reports that per Betts, the driver in the fatal crash was traveling at nearly 90 mph — far beyond even what investigators initially described.
Residents say the case highlights how Thousand Oaks has historically evaluated these intersections. Betts told the Acorn that when the city denied a resident's request for a traffic signal at Via Las Brisas and Via Grande in 2023, officials based the denial on a 2022 traffic count taken near Lynn Road rather than at the requested intersection itself — a discrepancy the group argues understated the real risk.
City Officials Meet With Neighbors, Push Back on 'Dangerous Street' Label
We Live Here representatives met on Oct. 26 at Thousand Oaks City Hall with Assistant City Manager Akbar Alikhan, City Clerk Laura Maguire, Public Works Director Nader Heydari, the sheriff's office traffic team, and representatives of both Dos Vientos homeowners associations, according to the Acorn's reporting. Michelle Drasin, who attended, said the city indicated it was open to exploring options, but cautioned that any approval would require clearing roadblocks and winning support from the traffic committee and likely the city council as well.
Drasin said Heydari told the group that Via Las Brisas did not meet the city's definition of a dangerous street. Still, the Acorn reports the city identified several possible safety actions short of a full signal: installing a radar speed-feedback sign near Via Grande, painting speed-limit markings on Via Las Brisas, evaluating a reduction of lanes from Lynn Road to Via Grande, adding a crosswalk at Via Grande, and reviewing the posted speed limit.
Speed Data Fuels the Residents' Case
The numbers residents have gathered are stark. A Ventura County Sheriff's Office speed trailer recorded nearly 29,000 vehicles passing through over one week in October 2025, and Drasin reported that roughly one in four drivers exceeded the posted 45 mph limit. More than 170 drivers topped 60 mph, two drivers exceeded 80 mph, and the trailer logged a top speed of 88 mph, according to Drasin's figures reported by the Acorn.
Drasin also raised concerns about how crash data is tracked, saying in an email to the Acorn that the sheriff's crash list does not specify a cross street for Calle Del Prado collisions, which can cause searches by intersection to miss relevant incidents entirely. She said six collisions listed in the state crash database were absent from the sheriff's release, and residents requested those records from the sheriff on Oct. 30.
The City of Thousand Oaks says on its website that it manages all traffic signals within city limits and follows state traffic engineering guidelines, reviewing intersections every two years to determine whether a signal is warranted or needs further review, according to the City of Thousand Oaks. City officials reiterated their plans two days after the Oct. 26 meeting, at an Oct. 28 meeting of the Traffic and Transportation Advisory Commission, per the Acorn. The city said it planned to bring the group's traffic signal request to the commission in early 2027, when Thousand Oaks is set to begin its biannual intersection review, with Via Las Brisas at Calle Del Prado and Via Las Brisas at Via Grande both listed for that review.
What Comes Next for the Intersections
Heydari said city staff was working with residents and both nearby homeowners associations to address their concerns, the Acorn reported. He said he expects to present updated intersection rankings to the commission in spring or summer of 2027, a timeline that leaves Dos Vientos residents waiting months longer for any decision on the signals they say should have been installed decades ago.
