Photo: Stock Image
Santa Barbara County, Ca. – March 24, 2023 – The danger to pedestrians in today’s busy transportation environment—with almost daily train derailments, aviation accidents, and vehicle collisions—is such that the admonition to “look both ways before crossing” taught to us by our parents, hardly seems sufficient to keep anyone walking along a sidewalk from serious harm.
That reality was made manifest on the early evening of March 20th when a pedestrian was run down on a downtown Santa Maria sidewalk. According to Santa Maria Police Department spokesman Sergeant Jesus Valle, “an adult male was walking on the sidewalk when a vehicle drove out of a parking lot and struck the pedestrian, dragging him for several feet and running him over.”
Witness to this violent event called 911, whereupon law enforcement and emergency medical services were promptly summoned to the scene to provide aid and transportation to the seriously injured victim.
The cops immediately “canvassed the area for video surveillance” and examined a local video record that identified the suspect vehicle. Further investigation led the cops to a nearby mobile home park where the vehicle was located. It didn’t take them long to find the owner of the car, 48-year-old Santa Maria resident Adolfo Zafra Dominguez.
Dominguez was promptly taken into custody and transported to Santa Barbara County Northern Branch Jail, where he was booked on charges of felony hit and run and driving without a license, with his bail set at $50,000.
