About two years ago, a Dos Pueblos High School freshman hopped on his e-bike to commute home. Minutes later, a car hit him, sending him flying off his bike on Cathedral Oaks Road.

Dexter Thulin is not the only student to have been involved in a crash on that road near the high school. 

There have been about five accidents involving students, vehicles and bikes along Cathedral Oaks Road in the past two years and three in the past school year, according to Dos Pueblos High School Principal Bill Woodard.

The three crashes, the most recent in April, happened near a gravel parking lot near campus, which is often used by sports teams. 

“Traffic on Cathedral Oaks has been slow due to congestion, while e-bikes have been traveling much faster along the side of the road. When cars turn into the dirt lot, drivers often cannot see approaching e-bikes,” Woodard explained in the statement to families.

This is the same way Dexter was hit.

Woodard said the traffic pattern in that area is not new, but adding e-bikes into the mix is.

“The e-bikes have made that stretch more dangerous,” Woodard said. “They go really fast, they don’t require a license, and we have some inexperienced riders that are maybe not proceeding cautiously.” 

E-bike safety has been a hot topic nationwide and locally, with many Santa Barbara County residents raising concerns about younger e-bike riders’ behavior and illegally modified bikes.

Lukas Thulin, Dexter’s dad, said that when he drives by the parking lot, it isn’t obvious it exists there.

“I ride a regular bike, and I would have just blown down (the road). Why would a car enter my bike lane when it (looks like) just woods next to me?” he said. 

In Goleta, 35 bicycle crashes have been reported from 2021 to 2025, with 40% occurring during peak after-school hours, according to data from the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System.

Nine of them were concentrated on Cathedral Oaks Road, a prominent bike crash area, according to the data.

Dexter was riding a Class 1 e-bike, which provides pedal assistance up to 20 mph, when he was hit.

His parents bought him the bike to get to school because they live near San Marcos High School, and taking the bus was not an option, he said.

The day of the crash, Dexter remembers seeing the car, which he described as a Suburban-type vehicle, for about a second before the crash sent him over the front of it.

“I was going down (the road) below the speed limit,” he recalled. “I get to the dirt lot, don’t see anything, and then all of a sudden it is just in front of me, and I hit the brakes but couldn’t stop fast.”

Following the collision, bystanders rushed to him and called an ambulance, and he was transported to the hospital to assess his injuries, which consisted of a black eye and scratches on his arms and shins, he said.

“My legs were all scratched up from hitting the ground,” Dexter said. “I got very lucky with my injuries.”

Dexter credits his e-bike for “saving” him because of its bulkiness. Nonetheless, it sustained $300 worth of damage. 

The crash also took him out of running for the high school’s cross-country team for about a month, and even when he returned, he was still running with some pain, Dexter said.

Lukas Thulin said school leadership sent a notification to the school community following Dexter’s accident. He remembers discussing the visibility issue near the gravel parking lot with Woodard, who told him the school was working with Goleta. 

When the April crash happened, Woodard, in a statement, reiterated the school’s partnership with Goleta to improve safety in that area.

“It’s like okay, same thing we said a year and a half ago, nothing has changed,” Lukas Thulin said. 

After the second accident in that area, Woodard said the gravel parking lot was temporarily closed until 4 p.m. to deter motorists from turning in, and he would sometimes have Community Resource Deputy George Hedricks patrol the area for unsafe activity by citing drivers and e-bike riders.

“That (closing the lot) seemed to help in the short term,” he said.

A eucalyptus tree near the gravel parking lot will also be cut down, which Woodard said contributed to the lack of visibility on Cathedral Oaks Road.

Robert Nisbet, Goleta city manager, confirmed the tree will be removed but does not know when. He added that the tree is a “good candidate” for removal because it is under a power line.

Additionally, the school has hosted e-bike safety workshops for students.

At the most recent one, the school and Goleta partnered with California Walks, UC Berkeley SafeTREC and the California Office of Traffic Safety. 

Representatives shared pedestrian and bike crash data from the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System.

Thulin called the repeated bike crashes on Cathedral Oaks Road a crisis at the workshop.

The data showed that along with Cathedral Oaks Road, Glen Annie Road and Storke Road, Hollister Avenue and Calle Real are other areas where most of the city’s bike crashes are concentrated, Kris Leckie with UC Berkeley SafeTREC said.

Thulin and Dexter attended, hoping to learn about possible solutions.

“Our hope is that the group will do something about it because no one else is,” Thulin said.

This summer, Woodard and Goleta officials plan to meet to discuss traffic safety and issues around the high school, Woodard said. 

“I think this meeting will hopefully have really good tangible outcomes for all,” Woodard said. 

It will be in addition to the discussions city staff and school leadership regularly have regarding issues impacting the school district and the city, according to Nisbet.

Additionally, Nisbet, an avid cyclist, believes there should be an emphasis in defensive driving, bike riding and safety education.

Woodard is appreciative of the city’s engagement to find a solution. 

“We really need this to be a multi-pronged effort, and I do believe the laws have not caught up to these e-bikes,” Woodard said. “I am really hoping that government officials, local, statewide and nationwide, understand the impact.”