A soap opera actress faces felony charges for allegedly causing a head-on crash on Highway 154 while driving with a blood-alcohol level more than four times the legal limit.
Santa Barbara District Attorney Joyce Dudley announced Tuesday that Jensen Buchanan, 53, of Los Angeles, has been charged with felony driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury and felony driving with a blood alcohol level of .08 percent or greater.
She also is charged with causing great bodily injury to Bradley Asolas, 56, of Camarillo, and an allegation her blood alcohol level exceeded .15 percent.
Court documents allege Buchanan was driving with a blood alcohol level of .34 percent when the crash occurred at approximately 6:20 a.m. May 18.
Buchanan was driving a Mercedes S550 east on Highway 154 and allowed her vehicle to drift across the double yellow line directly into the path of a westbound Ford C-Max on Highway 154 near the Live Oak Camp entrance, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Firefighters had to extricate Asolas, the driver of the other vehicle, from his wrecked Ford after he received critical injuries in the head-on collision, the CHP said.
Buchanan was transported to the hospital with minor injuries and arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, the CHP said the day of the crash.
Buchanan was a cast member on several soap operas during her career, starting in 1987, according to her IMDB page. Last year, she appeared on The Young and the Restless.
She is scheduled to be arraigned June 22 in Santa Barbara County Superior Court in Santa Maria, Dudley said.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.