Homeless Man Killed in Traffic Accident

First of all, what does the dead man's status of being homeless have to do with the accident?

"Castillo, according to McCaffrey, told investigators that he thought the man would clear the intersection before he drove through, but wound up striking the victim with the right front of his car."

What does THAT mean? How can one misjudge such a thing? Is his coordination that bad? Something doesn't add up here.

A pedestrian in the crosswalk, with the right of way under the law, is hit and killed by an unlicensed driver, AND THAT DRIVER IS LET GO by the police!

He must be an illegal, otherwise he would be in jail.

"A pedestrian in the crosswalk, with the right of way under the law, is hit and killed by an unlicensed driver, AND THAT DRIVER IS LET GO by the police!"

And to add to DP's comment it's clear that for whatever reason, the driver was not in control of his vehicle.

Was he speeding? Was he looking away from the road? Did the man jump out in front of him while he may not have been looking?

As for him thinking the man would clear the intersection he's telling us that he saw the man as he was crossing so using his testimony, why didn't he slow down or stop?

this is what i am talking about,stoopid people who just don't care. This young man in question just killed somebody because he was either under the influence of something or texting his freinds,in any case I believe that he is a LIAR , how are you going to simply not slow down at the sight of somebody crossing the street especially an elderly person (HA HA, SHAME ON YOU LIAR). They should lock this kid up and make an example of him, yeild to the pedestrian,(D.M.V.) BOOKLET LAW. THE PUNISHMENT IGNORANCE IN THE THIRD DEGREE for thinking the public buys his excuse for hitting an old man in the street with his little toy car.

Walking downtown, I often find drivers will "time" their passing through an intersection such that they just miss myself or other pedestrians as we cross the street. Even though drivers are supposed to wait for pedestrians to completely clear the intersection before entering.

How many of us drivers have been guilty of that?

Castillo - who owned the car but did not have a license -
Please tell me this was a typo, he doesn't have a license?
WTF, he just killed a man with a car; Why wasn't he jailed?
How disrespectful that you mention the man was homeless as in somehow it lessened the significance of his death.
What if this was White UCSB Sorority Girl, we'd be holding candlelight vigils at he courthouse and crying over the loss. This absolutely makes me sick.

Why does everyone feel the need on these comment boards to get crazy angry, but then in their day to day, they do nothing about the issues they rage over here. -AB in SB

I'm mystified too... he wasn't licensed, he struck and killed a man who was in the crosswalk and whom he has admitted to seeing. Several crimes were committed, he should have been arrested on the scene. I am blown away that he wasn't. Are his parents rich? Seriously, something is really wrong with this picture. It doesn't matter if he was homeless, he was human and had the right of way. There is absolutely no excuse for what happened here. If someone is in the crosswalk, you STOP, you don't run em over and then claim it was an accident. The driver likely didn't know how to control the car considering that he didn't even have a license and that means that he shouldn't have been driving on city streets, period. No excuses, he needs to be in A LOT of trouble here.

One unlicensed driver+10 dead homeless people=jail
The new SBPD equation when dealing with this type of situations.

I believe the "Homeless Man" statement to the housing of the victim is intended to show the callus and disregard for those who are without homes.
A few weeks ago there was a study done to identify the number of homeless killed in Santa Barbara County, well that number just went up with this latest death and for the reason behind it is reckless driving by an unlicenced driver of questionable citizenship or legal identification.
As for the release of the suspect, it would show the preference for those of latino heritage by the police chief or the DA to allow the suspect to go unckecked in the Community and if only to repeat his actions again (no license still did not deter his reason for driving).

Charles.

What is interesting is that whilst we speculate about the origin of the driver, the conditions of the accident, and so forth, we wouldn't need to do so if the people supported by our taxpayer dollars would simply answer some questions.

Once again: lack of open government. I hope The Independent does some investigative journalism on this one and can get to the bottom of this as well as Salud Carbajal's silence on the "Touchy Turban Talk" incident.

Aggressive journalism=accountable government.

Time to sick the Angry Poodle on these people.

dou4now wrote: "reckless driving by an unlicenced driver of questionable citizenship or legal identification."

Where did you get that? I guess you question his citizenship based on his Hispanic name. Most people around here with Hispanic names were born and raised here, as were their parents (and, often grandparents) and they are citizens, like you probably are, though your ancestors came from god-knows-where.

The article states only: "The driver of the vehicle, said McCaffrey, was 23-year-old Javier Castillo."

As for the rest of your knee-jerk, is there any possibility that there is more to the story than the reporter has written? Do reporters get all the details, and get them right, in the first article published immediately following an incident? Is that all there is to know? If so, why do we waste time on police investigations, court proceedings, jury deliberations... when we could just let an Indy report summarize the incident in a short article and let dou4now decide what to do about it!

Bottom line: if gang members would have been responsible for these deaths there would have been another Operation Gator Roll, but since it is just homeless people its "sucks to be you".

Geez, the torch carrying mob has spoken! First, saying this kid is possibly illegal because of his name is RIDICULOUS! The Castillo family has been in Santa Barbara for generations, so quit hating on every person with a spanish surname already. Over 50% of SB's population is Hispanic, and MOST of them are law abiding, decent citizens.

Second, though I agree something doesn't add up here if he saw the victim before he hit him, he didn't drive off and hide like many often do in these accidents. He cooperated with police, and THEY will determine if he should be charged. At 23, that was a very responsible thing to do, especially if he was at fault.

Third, while he didn't produce a license at the scene, it doesn't necessarily mean he didn't have a license to drive. He may have lost his wallet, had it stolen, left it at home, who knows? Though I'd nag him about it, our son would drive off without his wallet at that age regularly. Since this young man wasn't cited at the scene, there's a good chance he just didn't have it on his person at the time of the accident.

And Fourth, the man could have stumbled backward, or slowed down suddenly, which means the driver may not have had time to react. I nearly ran over a man some years ago who suddenly jumped out of the bushes on the FREEWAY at night, ran in front of my car and stopped in the middle of my lane. I barely missed him, and nearly rolled my car avoiding him. He stuck his thumbs in his ears, wiggled his fingers in the air and poked his tongue out at me as I passed him. Crazy!

Granted that's not what apparently happened in this case, some posters on here sure have jumped to a lot of conclusions. What if YOU were the one that accidentally ran over this man and killed him? YOU reached down to adjust the radio, or pick up a piece of paper with directions to where you're meeting for dinner, or grab your Big Gulp for a swig of soda? Or a pedestrian suddenly stumbles or slows when you assume they won't... As someone who grew up in SB and love this city, it's just so embarrassing what some of you write on here for all the world to see. You represent yourselves only, not the heart and spirit of our multicultural town.

crissyslucky7- No matter what the circumstance, a pedestian in a walkway has right of way. There is nothing in the law books that gives drivers the right to not stop or gauge a pedestrian so that they don't have to stop. Second, according to the article above, "the driver owned a car but did not have a license", it didn't say he was a licensed driver without possesion of a license at the time. Either ways, it is a crime not to have a license or be in possession of one while conducting a vehicle.
Third, Why give a person praise for doing something he is SUPPOSED to do? You are not supposed to flee the scene of an accident, that is also against the law.

No matter what there is something wrong, wrong, wrong.

Amen, crissyslucky7