Carpinteria car chase comes to crashing conclusion

A Santa Barbara man was arrested for causing a multi-car collision over the weekend.

CARPINTERIA – A high-speed rain-slicked freeway chase late Sunday afternoon ended with a multi-car crash that sent four people to the hospital and resulted in the felony arrest of Santa Barbara resident Todd Kadell, 37.

The action began in the elegantly cobblestoned  auto-court of the exclusive Bacara Resort just north of Goleta. According to Santa Barbara County sheriff’s spokesman Drew Sugars, deputies were in the process of responding to reports of a black Volvo station wagon being driven erratically and impacting several parked cars on hotel grounds.

Before they arrived at the resort, deputies identified the vehicle heading southbound on U.S. 101 toward Santa Barbara’s city limits.

“Patrol units responded immediately,” said Sugars, “with pursuit speeds hitting 85 miles per hour.”

Using red lights and sirens, deputies attempted to make contact with the driver who exited the freeway in Summerland, promptly ran a stop sign and immediately circled to a nearby southbound onramp, continuing southward toward Carpinteria.

“At this point, contact with the Volvo was lost,” Sugars said.

While deputies continued south on the freeway attempting to regain visual contact with the Volvo, 911 calls reported a serious crash on the side streets of downtown Carpinteria. The pursuing deputies responded to a Carpinteria intersection to discover a half-dozen vehicles scattered across the wide thoroughfare; one of the vehicles was the black Volvo station wagon, its driver nowhere to be seen.

Deputies immediately began rendering first aid to the multiple victims of the crash while additional units set off in pursuit of the suspect driver.

Kadell was located nearby, suffering non-life threatening injuries from the vehicular mayhem. He was treated at the scene and taken into custody.

Five others were treated at the scene, with two victims transported to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital for additional treatment.

While hospitalized, Kadell was booked for felony evasion of a peace officer and creating great bodily harm and felony hit and run causing great bodily injury, and is held without bail pending additional charges for the March 20 incident.