A Guadalupe man has been identified as the person killed in a two-vehicle crash that also injured two other people on Friday night in Orcutt.
At approximately 9 p.m., personnel from the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, California Highway Patrol and American Medical Response were dispatched to a head-on vehicle crash at Highway 135 (Orcutt Expressway) and Union Valley Parkway.
Minutes earlier, CHP officers had been alerted about a wrong-way driver traveling north in the southbound lanes of Highway 135, north of Graciosa Road, CHP Officer Alex Ruiz said Monday.
As CHP officers responded to the area, they learned about the head-on collision involving the wrong-way driver on southbound Highway 135, south of Union Valley Parkway.
Heavy extrication was required to free the victims from the crash, which initially was reported to involve three vehicles.
The wrong-way driver of the 2002 Honda, Jorge Valera Rodriguez, in his 20s, of Guadalupe was pronounced dead at the scene.
A passenger in his vehicle, a 21-year-old Guadalupe man, and the driver of a 2017 Toyota, a 31-year-old Lompoc man, suffered major injuries, and were taken by AMR ambulance to Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria.
Their names and conditions were not available on Monday.
The CHP said Rodriguez may have been impaired by drugs or alcohol.
Road closures were put into place for a time Friday night while crews removed the wreckage and investigated the crash.
— 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.