By the edhat staff
A dog died and a man became seriously injured when their truck crashed into the pillar of the Albertsons grocery store in Goleta on Thanksgiving Day.
At 3:57 p.m. Thursday, Santa Barbara County Firefighters responded to the parking lot next to the Camino Real Marketplace on Santa Felicia Drive.
Crews discovered a Dodge pickup was traveling at a rate of high speed when it crashed into pillar in front of the Albertsons entrance.
A man and a dog were inside the vehicle at the time of the collision. It took 15 minutes for crews to extricate the driver who sustained major injuries. He was transported to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital by a ground ambulance.
The dog succumbed to its injuries, according to Captain Scott Safechuck.
There was no reported structural damage to the building.
Photo: SBCFD
High rate of speed – in a parking lot?
Is it my imagination or are there either a lot more accidents or is the reporting more inclusive? Seems expecially more accidents involving speed or substance impairment.
RED CREEK, That’s anecdotal and false. Accidents rates fall every year. The only stat that went up in recent years is fatal traffic accidents, and even then, not by a statistically significant amount. Overall accident rates go down every year (ignoring 2020, which was a very abnormal year for driving obviously)
Not your imagination. A repair shop said they have been swamped with broken cars from accidents since fall of 2021. Reckless driving, speeding, lack of signaling all contribute, along with substantially increased number of vehicles on the roads.
This is right across the street from where we live. We saw the aftermath. I had been in the store earlier to buy things for Thanksgiving. The store closed early at 3:00PM and this occurred a bit after that. We just kept thinking how much worse this could have been.
We really would like to know what happened. I find it very frustrating that in many of these cases we never find out and then it is on to the next breaking news.
I am very sad about the dog but it could so easily have been an innocent bystander or a child. People drive way too fast and too distracted in parking lots.