Edhat Staff
Photos: Mike Eliason / SBCFD
By edhat staff
A total of five people, four of them children, were injured in a single-vehicle collision near the Los Carneros offramp Monday afternoon.
At 2:32 p.m., Santa Barbara County Firefighters, AMR ambulance, California Highway Patrol (CHP), and Santa Barbara County Sheriff Deputies responded to Highway 101 northbound, just south of the Los Carneros off-ramp for a vehicle collision.
Crews on scene discovered an SUV had left the roadway and drove through a pocket of trees, narrowly missed striking a tree head-on, and rested against the chainlink fence bordering Calle Real.
A total of seven people were in the vehicle, three adults and four children. The adult female driver suffered moderate injuries and was transported to Cottage Hospital. The two other adults, a male and female, were uninjured. There was no extrication needed, reports Santa Barbara County Fire Department Public Information Officer Mike Eliason.
All of the four children, the youngest being two-months-old, were taken to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. One boy suffered major injuries, another boy suffered moderate injuries, and a girl suffered minor injuries. The ages are unknown at this time.
The two-month-old did not seem to be injured but was taken to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital as a precaution to be evaluated, said Eliason.
CHP is investigating the cause of this incident and traffic is backed up in the area.
Yikes!! Hope the child with major injuries will be ok.
A guard rail is desperately needed along that stretch of road from Fairview to Los Carneros. A couple of months ago a car rolled there after leaving the roadway and bouncing off the fence killing the driver. There have been other times that cars have crushed through the chain link fence. A guard rail would have made a big difference in all of these.