Victim Identified in Fatal Traffic Collision Near Nojoqui Summit

Update by the edhat staff
November 22, 2023

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff Coroner’s Bureau has released the identity of the victim from the vehicle collision on Highway 101 northbound, just south of Old Coast Highway in Buellton on Sunday, November 19, 2023.

The decedent has been identified as Candace Ware, 66, from Brookings, Oregon.

Fatal Traffic Collision Near Nojoqui Summit

By the edhat staff
November 19, 2023

One person has died in a traffic collision on Highway 101 near Gaviota on Sunday afternoon.

At 1:25 p.m., Santa Barbara County firefighters responded to the northbound lanes near the Nojoqui Summit for a report of a vehicle over the side of the roadway.

Crews arrived on the scene and discovered a two vehicle collision where one vehicle, a 2010 Mercedes, crashed 300 feet down an embankment over the side of the road.

The driver in this vehicle, an unnamed female, was pronounced dead at the scene after extensive extrication.

The second vehicle, a 2023 gray Kia, remained on the roadway. The driver, identified as 34-year-old Perla Marrero-Chairez from Santa Maria, was uninjured.

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) reports the Kia was traveling northbound in the fast lane, south of Old Coast Highway at a speed of approximately 65 mph. The Mercedes was also traveling northbound at about the same speed in the next lane.

For “unknown reasons” Marrero-Chairez allowed her vehicle to travel to the left, crashing the left side of the Kia into the center divider. The Kia then crossed into the slow lane and directly into the path of the Mercedes, causing the Mercedes to run off the east road edge of the highway, down a descending dirt embankment, and overturn, the CHP reports.

The Kia continued northbound, and crashed into the concrete center divider again. The Kia then overturned onto its right side within the slow lane of northbound Highway 101.

Drugs and alcohol were determined not to be a factor in this crash, CHP states.

One northbound lane of Highway 101 was closed for a period of time.

This crash remains under investigation. Anyone with information regarding this traffic crash is requested to contact the Buellton Area CHP office at (805) 688-5551.