Geo Duarte
By Geo Duarte
A Gray Mercedes Benz traveling westbound on Las Positas, veered onto oncoming traffic, striking a black Audi. The Audi that was traveling eastbound spun out of control. The Audi may have struck the pole then a Toyota Tacoma that was waiting at the stop sign on Stanley Drive. Although that is just supposition due to perceived greater damage to the black Audi.
The Audi seemed to have sustained the most damage of all three cars involved. The landscaping trucks front bumper came almost completely off yet was drivable. The driver of the Tacoma stated that it was a head-on collision. Not sure why the gray Mercedes didn’t look as bad. The previously mentioned pole did not seem to have damage to it. The Mercedes came to rest facing the opposite direction than it was traveling. Which is actually facing eastbound.
The Audi came to rest on the sidewalk facing directly toward the corner of the house on the corner of Las Positas and Stanley Drive. The Toyota truck didn’t seem to have moved much. Both of the main cars involved had their airbags deployed.
The young female driver of the Audi did not seem to have any injuries. The elderly couple from the Gray Mercedes seemed generally ok although the female seemed to have pain in one knee. The two landscapers in the truck seemed completely OK, they just had to rip off what was left of the bumper.
This could have been way more serious. Glad they were all relatively unscathed and no other vehicles were involved. Both vehicles are likely totaled.
Photo by Geo Duarte
Las Positas runs North-South.
9545 : Yes! Even more so in the section that goes by Stanley Drive.
Unravelling the whole description, they obviously feel that as long as you’re driving TOWARDS the ocean you are West bound !!! Since this is the direction the M.B. was (initially) travelling !
Maybe so, yet relative to the Highway 101 which is near by—it runs East-West. True north is irrelevant, unless yourare traveling in an airplane or some other navigational situation on the high seas would be one example. Odd and Even is more relevant to the average motorist,. At times the 101 is not running true north or south. For daily practicallity, the compass or coorinates are absolutely irrelevant. Even Google Maps gives you a relative direction. The GPS and GIS coordinates are only important behind the scenes to to the software. The geographic information system also has elevation data, doest elevation matter here? LoL! The global positioning system information is not spewed out to the user—simple relative terms and instructions are helpful. True west, true East, really don’t matter in a N.E.W.S. article. LoL
7:02- So you only base where you are on Google or the number of the highway? It makes zero difference in this story, but that’s kinda weird… It’s good to know which way is which and to know exactly where you are, without your phone.
There’s a left turn lane for Stanley: https://www.google.com/maps/@34.4353798,-119.7337032,3a,75y,118.16h,98.12t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1siXHjeAcSMmDa8SxUpW1FHg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
During World War 2, the Germans were obsessed with building streets that only ran true North and true South, East, West, etc. Their symbol sort of speaks of that in an odd way. That’s really weird to the average Joe!
Thanks. I was still trying to figure out the north/south thing! What a frightening event. Remarkable car engineering that everyone is still alive.
The direction DOES matter because you can’t know which SIDE of the street is referenced without it. In this case, Las Positas, where it is a State Highway, has the number 225, an odd number, a label which means it runs (generally) north-south. And it does. Precisely.
US 101 is labeled with an odd number indicating it generally runs north-south, except in SB County where it runs west-east. Las Positas perpendicularly intersects 101—-so they both cannot be ACTUALLY going west-east can they? Nor can they both be going as they are labeled, north-south, So why not just used the actual compass points for clarity? Bottom line, no matter how you look at it, there is no way to go westbound on Las Positas. Simple.
A thing to note. The dirt you see on the road is there to absorb any fuel that may have escaped. The smell of fuel was not detectible.
The absorbent agent looks like micro-mulch and is removed soon-after to prevent a possible fire hazard.
Regardless of the gobbledegook regarding north/south, east /west, this is close to where the woman was killed last year. Sad to see her home now sold and being redone by the new owners. Slow down Santa Barbara. After the fatality, they said they were putting in a crosswalk at the very location of this accident. They need to lower the speed limit and enforce it. I think the crosswalk will cause more accidents and fatalities if drivers ignore speed limits.
“West bound” is completely meaningless in the context of Las Positas Road