One person was pronounced dead today after a serious automobile collision occurred on Highway 1 outside Lompoc, two miles west of Highway 101. One of the vehicles caught fire, but bystanders were able to remove its two occupants before the fire started. Another passenger was trapped in the second vehicle involved in the collision, and was later pronounced dead at the scene. The three remaining victims were seriously injured, with one transported by helicopter, and the others transported by ground, to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
County Fire responded to the accident with two engine companies and a Battalion Chief, according to a press release from Santa Barbara County Fire Department Public Information Officer Captain Eli Iskow, and they were assisted by an engine company from Lompoc City Fire, a Cal Star medivac helicopter, and officers from the County Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol. Fire companies extinguished the vehicle fire, and law enforcement has reopened one lane of Highway 1.
