Car Plunges Over Side of Old San Marcos Road

Word came early this morning from California Highway Patrol spokesperson Officer Donald Clotworthy that Daniel Hopkins, a 17-year-old Santa Barbara resident, had been involved in collision that somehow resulted in his Volvo S40 sedan driving over the side of Old San Marcos Road, just south of Highway 154, and then plunged about 200 feet down a hillside sometime early this morning. Hopkins’s mother notified authorities at around 4:50 a.m. that her son had called and said he was in an accident, and officers located his vehicle shortly thereafter. The vehicle was not visible from the road. CHP officers extracted Hopkins from his vehicle, which was “completely destroyed” as a result of the accident, and transported him via helicopter to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. Medical staff is treating Hopkins for in non-life-threatening injuries that Clotworthy identified as a broken left collar bone, a fractured neck and multiple cuts and abrasions. Although the details of the collision are still being investigated, Clotworthy concluded that neither alcohol nor drugs were involved.