Weeks after a mother and her two children died in a car crash on Highway 154, the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG) is considering establishing a committee to examine ways to make the roadway safer.
On Oct. 25, John Dungan allegedly veered into an opposing lane of traffic just east of the Cold Springs Bridge and hit another car head-on that was carrying Rebecca Vanessa Goss Bley, 2-year-old Lucienne Gleason, and 4-month-old Desmond Gleason.
At a press conference on Nov. 7, California Highway Patrol Capt. Cindy Pontes said Dungan was booked into the county jail on Nov. 5 after spending some time in the hospital. He has been charged with three counts of murder for the crash, which the CHP believes Dungan intentionally caused.
Almost a month later, the SBCAG board of directors will vote on whether to establish a Highway 154 Safety Committee at its Nov. 21 meeting. SBCAG Government Affairs and Public Information Manager Lauren Bianchi Klemann said this committee would give stakeholders and the public the opportunity to look at what’s being done to make the roadway safer and what else can be done.
According to a staff report for the Nov. 21 meeting, there was an average of 54 reported crashes on Highway 154 annually from 2006 to 2017. On average, four of those crashes per year were fatal.
“Recent traffic incidents on State Route Highway 154 have motivated county residents to seek to implement traffic safety measures to reduce traffic deaths and injuries,” the staff report states.
While the most recent crash has left many residents looking for answers, Klemann said the initial idea for this safety committee came out of recommendations a different committee made in 2017. During a meeting that year, the Highway 154 Truck Safety Committee—which was created in 2010 to look at concerns regarding truck traffic on the roadway—recommended SBCAG create a broader safety committee to look at ways to reduce fatalities and injuries on the highway.
Klemann, who has been with SBCAG for six months, said with the number of significant issues local agencies have dealt with since 2017, such as the Thomas Fire and the debris flows in Montecito, the idea for this committee hadn’t been brought back for a discussion until this Nov. 21 meeting.
This article appears in Nov 21-28, 2019.