Two hours after sunset on Christmas Eve last year, Ricardo Hernandez and a companion were crossing Hollister Avenue in Old Town Goleta when they were struck by a newer model Toyota Corolla traveling 25mph. Both were injured and taken to Cottage Hospital, where the 76-year-old Hernandez was pronounced dead at 10:49 p.m.
His death was a blow not only to his family but to Goleta’s efforts to increase safety along Hollister Avenue, a controversial project that used paint to restripe the road temporarily, reducing the lanes from four to two. The collision rate, four times the state average, was too great to ignore, the city said. A previous death occurred at Hollister and Kellogg in 2007 involving a bicyclist, and another in 2022 involved a one-year-old boy on a side street in Old Town.
The recently completed coroner’s report gives more details about the incident. Hernandez was walking across Hollister to the north, and the sedan was traveling west toward Fairview Avenue. Though Hernandez was wearing dark clothing, that was not a factor in the accident, Goleta police said, as the area was sufficiently lit by streetlamps. The coroner’s report gives an “other significant contributing” factor to be “polysubstance intox” with positive blood results for methamphetamine, opiate, methadone, and fentanyl.
Old Town streets rarely align as they cross Hollister. Hernandez had started crossing near Magnolia Avenue on the south side of the road. The city council, during a road update on March 19, asked for a crosswalk to be considered at the location, which Public Works has added to its capital improvements projects.
The city’s review compared an October 2022 baseline to three recent months. Collisions overall had dropped by 42 percent; two resulted in injuries, and in one, Hernandez had died. Pedestrians had increased by 67 percent in the evening. Traffic had dropped by about 2,000 vehicles a day, and speeds were generally down from 32mph to 28mph.
