“Safety” Concerned Residents Relocate Makeshift Memorial Boulder

It’s been three weeks since Daniella Hearn, Benjamin Rubio and Angel Flores were killed in a car accident on Cliff Drive in Santa Barbara.

Friends, families and strangers created a makeshift roadside memorial for the victims. People visit the memorial throughout the day to pay their respects.

Residents in the community are concerned about the traffic violations and hazards posed by the large crowds that visit the memorial site. Some residents have called Santa Barbara Police. No one has called Santa Barbara City Public Works Department.

“The city doesn’t have an established policy regarding the placement of memorials on the public right of way. Fortunately for us, it’s not a very common thing to have a fatal car crash of this magnitude in the city so it’s not something that we’ve had to deal with in the past,” said Derrick Bailey, supervising transportation engineer for Santa Barbara City Public Works Department.

NewsChannel 3 Reporter Vicky Nguyen received an email from a concerned viewer who visited the memorial and was upset by the relocation of a boulder which held the items. She was not available to go on camera.

We reached out to neighbors in the community part of a homeowners association which relocated the boulder, but they declined to go on camera. They told us off camera that they feared retribution. The boulder was relocated back to its original location, before the accident.

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