The California Highway Patrol released the name of the driver who died after his 2006 Ford Ranger hit a Chumash Casino Resort passenger bus on Jan. 18. The CHP released the name of Simon Ruiz of Norwalk, Calif., after alerting his next of kin after the Santa Barbara County coroner identified the body. He was declared dead at the scene.
The Chumash Casino Resort bus had only two occupants inside, the driver and a passenger, both Santa Marians, who complained of pain, but denied treatment at the scene.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation, CHP officer John Ortega told the Sun, but according to the collision report, Norwalk lost control of the Ford Ranger, began a clockwise spin, and then crossed over the highway’s double yellow lines. The driver of the oncoming passenger bus attempted to avoid the truck, but was unsuccessful. The right side center section of the Ford Ranger impacted the front left corner of the bus, smashing the vehicle significantly, and partially ejecting Norwalk, who didn’t survive.
Highway 154 remained closed for more than two hours following the collision. The condition of the road that day was wet, as a light rain was falling at the time of the accident. Officer Ortega reminded drivers that they must take into account all conditions while driving.
“These are things that are usually human induced, really, like driving too fast for the conditions, or not paying attention to what traffic is doing up ahead,” he said. “A road is a road, what causes any kind of danger is the people that drive on it.”
This article appears in Jan 21-28, 2016.