Full Notification

On Sunday February 24, 2019 at about 11:30 P.M, an on-duty Santa Barbara Police Officer was exiting a convenience store in the first block of South Milpas Street when he observed a compact Kia with five occupants heading south past his location at a high rate of speed. 
 
Another vehicle, subsequently identified as being the victim of a hit-and-run collision with the Kia, was following the Kia a distance behind it.  
 
The reckless driver of the Kia, late in noticing the Milpas roundabout ahead, went into a skid lasting almost the length of a football field, 78 yards (236 feet). The Kia ended its skid when it struck the Milpas roundabout’s central concrete planter before deflecting off it and coming to rest in the roadway.
 
The officer who observed the incident was on scene in a matter of seconds and immediately requested ambulances and the Santa Barbara Fire Department’s ‘Jaws-of-Life.’
 
The officer and the hit-and-run victim rendered immediate aid to the occupants of the Kia while they awaited additional emergency personnel. Two females crawled from the wreckage while three males remained trapped inside and needed to be extricated from the carnage.
 
All five of the Kia’s occupants were transported to Cottage Hospital via ambulance. Their injuries remain catastrophic.
 
Drugs and possibly alcohol are suspected to be a factor in this injury DUI, hit-and-run collision. 
 
The twenty three year old driver, Joseph David Hernandez of Oxnard, who was already on probation for an earlier DUI conviction, faces charges of felony hit-and-run, possession of methamphetamine, driving with a suspended license, felony drunk driving with injury, and violating the terms of his probation.
 
Upon transport to Santa Barbara County Jail his bail will be $100,000.
 
(Picture not available as he is still in hospital)