The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors held a moment of silence on Tuesday to recognize the three Dos Pueblos High School teenagers killed in a multi-car wreck on Highway 1 south of Lompoc Sunday evening.
Senior Jake Curtis, 18, of Goleta, and junior Michael Ochsner, 17, and sophomore Alexander Wood, 15, of Santa Barbara, died from injuries suffered in the collision. The crash also seriously injured two Lompoc residents in another vehicle.
The three teenagers were hired last month as first-year county lifeguards and were returning home after a training session at Jalama Beach at the time of the crash.
“These are young folks who decided to spend their time with us as a county protecting others,” said Second District Supervisor and board chair Laura Capps.
She said the event is “an unspeakable nightmare that has occurred, affecting so many families.”
Dos Pueblos High School, at 7266 Alameda Ave. in Goleta, is in Third District Supervisor Joan Hartmann’s District.
“They were caravanning home from junior lifeguard training at Jalama Beach and were valued members of our county parks team,” Hartmann said. “These young men were not only part of the Dos Pueblos community, but also part of our Santa Barbara County family.”
Hartmann said the tragedy has “shaken our entire community.”
“Our hearts go out to the family, friends and co-workers who are grieving this unimaginable loss,” Hartmann said. “The whole county mourns with you.”
County spokesperson Kelsey Gerckens Buttitta said Curtis, Ochsner and Wood were at Jalama Beach Sunday for the season’s final training session working with Calstar, which does helicopter ambulance medical services.
“Training was complete and everyone was heading home in anticipation for a big opening weekend to the lifeguard season this coming Memorial Day weekend,” she told Noozhawk.
The three were also student athletes, according to Bill Woodard, principal at Dos Pueblos High School.
Wood played water polo on the junior varsity team, Ochsner ran track and cross country for the junior varsity team, and Curtis was a varsity swimmer.
Noozhawk executive editor Giana Magnoli contributed reporting to this story.
