Subscriber Comments for
Vehicle Over Paradise Road

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

ROGER DODGER	2013-01-22 08:55 AM
I don't know why I didn't hear that...I wonder if they ever found it?
COMMENT 366209P	2013-01-22 02:30 PM
They did -- FIFTEEN hours later. Couldn't thermal imaging equipment have helped?! article's on Noozhawk
COMMENT 366243P	2013-01-22 03:24 PM
They finally got to him 15 HOURS later. KEYT news states: "Santa Barbara County Sheriff's officials responded and searched areas off Paradise and San Marcos Roads for several hours, even using an infrared device" Really? The car was just 20 feet off the road, and was visible from the side of the road. If any of the responders got out of their car and just looked, they would have seen him. KEYT news: "deep in a nearly vertical embankment, roughly a half mile above San Antonio Creek Rd." Really? That makes it sound like it was way down hill somewhere, deep down. And why do they use 1/2 a mile above a road as a descriptor, when it was about 20 feet off 154? To make it seem like it was much farther from the road than it was in reality - to cover themselves for not finding this man? If he had more serious injuries he could have easily died with that much time passing. This is the problem when reporters use a press release when they write an article, changing few words of the agencies description of the event. It ends up being exactly how they want to present the event, rather than an unbiased and objective factual view of the event. Readers end up thinking "well they searched for hours and it was half a mile from the road deep in a ditch" rather than thinking that this man waited all night to be rescued and should have been found - and that maybe the supervisors called the search off way too early. And that perhaps they were distracted with the Loma Alta fire and didn't come back to look after the fire was out. If I were that man, I would be grateful for being rescued this morning, but angry that it took them that long to find me and had to be out there all night cold, injured and trapped in the car. Here is a picture of the accident site: http://media.keyt.com/images/600*450/hwy_154_driver_tra pped_2.jpg
COMMENT 366243P	2013-01-22 03:33 PM
Noozhawk is reporting that a CHP officer is alleging that prescription medicine may be a factor in the accident. But that is not the point - The point is why it took responders so long to find any person this close to the road. Shining a flashlight down there would have easily shown the car. All responders have flashlights and the FD crews have HID portable lights and installed on the truck. How they are going to determine that it was prescription drugs with a blood test more than 15 hours later should be interesting.
COMMENT 366341P	2013-01-22 05:35 PM
That would have been tragic had this person passed away from their injuries with only a unit or two from CHP, Sheriff, a firetruck and a helicopter that would have difficulty seeing through dense brush. I remember from a public event in Lompoc a number of months ago that Search and Rescue has night vision and advanced thermal imaging equipment. They could have searched the 154 and probably found the injured person far before daybreak. Do we know if they were called?
~DIAMOND~	2013-01-22 09:50 PM
OP here - I heard the initial dispatch. It sounded like it was only Copter 3, CHP (initially), and the one Fire Dept Engine. I didn't hear a call for SAR. It may have happened, but I didn't hear it. (I don't think they were called) For the 5150 person that jumped over the hill when being contacted by Sheriff's Dept recently, there was a request for SAR.

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