Photo: Stock Image
The likelihood that Goleta resident 19-year-old David Z. Rousso was driving under the influence on the afternoon of September 20th when the car he was driving ran down and killed a roadside maintenance worker has been discounted, according to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Raquel Zick who reported that “drugs and alcohol are not believed to be a factor in this collision.”
His sobriety notwithstanding, witness reports indicated that Rousso’s white Toyota Corolla slammed into 29-year-old Ruben Reyes Victoria, a resident of Goleta who was employed by a landscape management company conducting roadside maintenance, and that Rousso failed to stop at the scene of the accident, “driving away” and turning into a hotel parking lot where he parked his car.
Responding emergency medical teams found Victoria in the roadside bike lane where they “performed CPR on the victim” to no avail; Victoria was pronounced dead at the scene. SBSD patrol deputies arrived and made contact with Rousso, who was taken into custody and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail. He was booked on charges of felony hit-and-run causing death or injury and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence. Rousso remains in custody with his bail set at $50,000.
