Lompoc Crash

MASSIVE REPORT ON FATAL COLLISION LAYS BLAME ON DRIVER FROM V.V [abbr. for
a local housing area]

A four-month investigation into the cause of a fiery two-car collision that
left 11 dead on Highway 1 near Lompoc last September lays full blame on a
Vandenberg Village man driving too fast and under the influence of drugs.

Michael Bucci, 42, crossed the roadway's double-yellow lines in his truck
at 79 miles per hour and plowed head-on into a van carrying 12 Mexican
nationals, the California Highway Patrol said in a report released Friday.

Bucci ingested cocaine within four hours of the collision -- and heroin
wihtin 12 hours of the crash -- impairing his ability to drive, a
toxicologist determined.

As earlier reported, Bucci also was found to have had opiates and traces of
marijuana in his system when he died.

The drive of the van, Julio Rosa Camacho, 20, who also died, had ingested
cocaine within 48 hours of the accident, but toxicologists could not
determine whether he was under the influence at the time.

"He was driving straight, at a reasonable speed, and someone ran into him,"
said Lt. Paul Matthies, commander of the Buellton CHP office.

Eleven people died in the Sept. 9 crash. They included eight Mexican
nationals on their way home to Canoga Park in the van after selling corn in
Lompoc; plus Vandenberg Village residents Bucci and Charlotte Wright, 29,
and former Lompoc resident Joseph "JoJo" Navarro, 28, in the truck.

Four passengers in the van survived. One required extensive burn and
orthopedic surgery. All survivors have returned to Mexico.

Wright's mother, Peg Purkey of Vandenberg Village, said the cause of the
accident is irrevelant to her now.

It's an accident. It happened," Purkey said. "It doesn't matter who's at
fault. It doesn't bring them back."

Naturally, it's been a tough four months for Purkey, her husband and other
children. Wright's birthday was in October, then they had to get through
Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"We're doing OK. One day at a time," she said. "We have good days and bad days."

The 139-page report was prepared by the CHP's Multi-Disciplinary Accident
Investigation Team from its San Luis Obispo office. The team, assembled
just one month before the crash, reconstructed the accident to draw its
conclusions.

Matthies, in the county on and off for 27 years, again called it "the worst
single traffic collision I've ever seen."

The vehicles, like most of the dead, were unidentifiable immediately after
the crash. The truck, the report said, was a 1994 Ford Ranger pickup; the
van, a Chevy G-10.

Though much of Highway 1 was shut down during the day for repairs, the
section where the crash occurred was determined not to have been a
construction zone, Matthies said.