A crane hauls up a mangled pickup truck Thursday in the Windy Gap area of Highway 154 above Santa Barbara. The truck plunged 300 feet over the side of the highway Aug. 6 in a suspected DUI crash. 
A distinctive road cut in the area of Windy Gap on Highway 154. 
A crane gets set to haul up a pickup truck that plunged over the side of Highway 154 at Windy Gap on Aug. 6. 
Windy Gap is a section of Highway 154 east of Painted Cave Road, above Santa Barbara. 
The Windy Gap section of Highway 154. 
A distinctive road cut in the area of Windy Gap on Highway 154. 
There are several sharp turns in the area of Windy Gap on Highway 154 
A distinctive road cut in the area of Windy Gap on Highway 154.
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Question: Where exactly is Windy Gap on Highway 154?
— Multiple readers have asked about this
You won’t find Windy Gap on a map, but it’s a common term used by Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol and law enforcement personnel for a particular stretch of Highway 154 above Santa Barbara.
The highway curves its way over and through the Santa Ynez Mountains to connect the South Coast and the Santa Ynez Valley.
It’s notorious for over-the-side vehicle crashes and head-on collisions, and many of them are reported at Windy Gap.
The latest incident occurred Aug. 6 when a truck plunged 300 feet down the mountainside, severely injuring both the driver and passenger.t The driver was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.
The Windy Gap section is east of Painted Cave Road, on the Santa Barbara side, where the highway is cut between two distinctive rock formations, Caltrans spokesman Colin Jones told Noozhawk.
“It doesn’t show up on Google Maps, but we and the CHP use the term frequently,” he said in an email.
Some locals may identify it differently.
Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman Mike Eliason, a longtime local and photojournalist, said the easiest way to describe Windy gap is between North San Marcos Road on the west and San Antonio Road on the east.
The more local way to describe it is west of the power lines and east of the 35 mph curve, he said.
As a bonus, the “hot-shot local” way to describe it is Highway 154 just east of Arnoldi curve, Eliason added.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
