A 33-year-old man from Santa Maria has been identified as the motorcyclist killed in crash on Highway 1 near Vandenberg Space Force Base last week.
The crash happened Thursday, July 28, around 7:40 a.m. near Firefighter Road.
The California Highway Patrol says their initial investigation shows the driver of a Yukon was heading northbound when, for unknown reasons, she crossed into the southbound lanes and hit a motorcyclist head-on.
CHP says the motorcycle was thrown into the other southbound lane where it was hit by another vehicle. The motorcyclist, identified by the Santa Barbara County Coroner’s Bureau as Faysal Hekmat of Santa Maria, was ejected from the bike and died at the scene.
Officers say after the initial collision, the drivers of two other vehicles traveling southbound saw the Yukon heading the wrong way and drove into the center median to avoid a collision.
Because of this, CHP says one of the vehicles was damaged after being hit by debris from the initial crash. Another vehicle had some damage from driving into the center median.
Those drivers remained at the scene.
The driver of the Yukon has been identified as a 21-year-old woman from Santa Maria. She was taken to the hospital for treatment of what CHP said were minor injuries.
CHP says drugs or alcohol do not appear to be factors in the crash and no arrests were made.
The highway was shut down for about 4.5 hours after the crash.
