The driver killed in a solo crash on Highway 101 early last Thursday morning has been identified as 25-year-old Scott Kim of Stevenson Ranch, according to Raquel Zick of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.
The fatal collision occurred around 3:16 a.m. on December 4, when Kim’s white Lexus SUV veered off the southbound side of the highway just past Dos Pueblos Canyon Road. According to the California Highway Patrol, the vehicle left the roadway, hit a “No Parking” sign, overturned, and slammed into a eucalyptus tree.
Kim was found unresponsive inside the wreckage and extricated by CHP officers, who immediately began CPR. Santa Barbara County Fire personnel soon arrived and assumed lifesaving efforts, but Kim was pronounced dead at the scene.
Photos from the crash show the SUV mangled around the tree, with the #2 lane of the 101 temporarily closed during the response.
CHP Officer Jonathan Gutierrez said the cause of the crash is still under investigation. “The vehicle was traveling southbound at an unknown speed in an unknown lane when it veered off the roadway for reasons still under investigation,” he wrote in the official release.
When reached by phone Tuesday, CHP officers said they do not know if drugs or alcohol were involved.
Anyone who witnessed the crash is urged to call the Santa Barbara CHP office at (805) 770-4800.
