Driver in Fatal 154 Crash Was a Ticking Time Bomb
John Roderick Dungan Was Recently Arrested on Gun and Stalking Charges and Had Been Involuntarily Committed to Psychiatric Hospital
On Friday, October 25, at approximately 4:45 p.m., Santa Barbara authorities were on their way to conduct a welfare check at the home of John Roderick Dungan. They had received information, just as they had during a check of Dungan earlier this year, that he was homicidal and suicidal.
As police approached his Foothill neighborhood home, they got the call. Dungan, 28, had just been involved in a fatal collision on Highway 154. He was driving his Chevy Camaro westbound near Cold Spring Bridge when, “for unknown reasons,” he crossed the double-yellow line and slammed head-on into a Chevy Volt driven by Solvang resident Vanessa Bley, 34. Bley and the two children in her backseat were killed. Dungan was airlifted to Cottage Hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The identities of the children are being determined by DNA samples sent to the Sacramento, officials said. Bley, a singer and songwriter, was married with two young kids. The California Highway Patrol asked that witnesses to the crash contact their office at (805) 967-1234. Authorities are now determining whether to investigate the incident as a homicide. “We’re still trying to figure that out,” said CHP spokesperson Officer Jonathan Gutierrez. As of Monday afternoon, Dungan remained in critical condition.
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