Driver Killed in Head-On Crash near Nojoqui Summit

An 80-year-old man was killed in an automobile accident on May 3 near Nojoqui Summit and was identified by the Coroner’s Office yesterday as Michael Channing Peake. In the accident, Peake was driving a 1987 Jeep to the north and up the grade, when Juliel Montes, 34, of Salinas crossed the southbound Highway 101 lanes in his 2012 GMC and ran head-on into the Jeep. Peake died of his injuries; Montiel told Highway Patrol officers he was not injured.

CHP investigators are looking into the cause of the crash and why the GMC crossed into the northbound lanes, said Officer Rogers of the Buellton office. The Report of Collision indicates alcohol or drugs were not involved, but any eyewitnesses to the crash are asked to call Officer Bennet at (805) 688-5551.

Peake, who lived in Santa Barbara, was the son of noted muralist Channing Peake, who, with his first wife, Catherine Schott Peake, had a ranch near Buellton called Rancho Jabali in the 1930s and ’40s. Part of the ranch now operates as a vineyard under the Peake Ranch label in the Sta. Rita Hills.

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