February 24, 2022 – Santa Barbara County, Ca.
For the past six years, the flow of traffic both north- and southbound on U.S. 101 between Ventura and Santa Barbara has been heavily impacted by freeway “improvements” provided by CalTrans construction crews working under what appears to be a “never on weekends, holidays, or after 3:00 p.m.” schedule.
Morning, evening, and weekend traffic moving at walking speeds has become a predictable verity projected to persist long enough for us all to realize the dream of owning a flying car.
Perhaps it was his personal frustration with the progress of freeway improvements that led to the February 21 st arrest of 24-year-old Carpinteria resident Santiago Garcia-Soriano. According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Raquel Zick, it was late that afternoon (well after quitting time for local area CalTrans crews) when “deputies were dispatched to investigate a subject digging into the hillside near a drainage culvert” where a seasonal creek flows beneath the U.S. 101 roadway.
Deputies made contact with Garcia-Soriano at that time, and after a bit of conversation with them and a Santa Barbara County Fire Department investigator, he “admitted he started a fire in the culvert” just two days earlier which had brought all weekend traffic to a grinding halt for several hours.
Following that discussion, Garcia-Soriano was taken into custody and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where he was booked on charges of felony arson and possession of cocaine, with his bail set at $250,000.
