A 50-year-old Ventura resident was killed Saturday night after being struck by a BMW while walking in a traffic lane on southbound Highway 101 near State Route 33. The collision shut down all southbound lanes for roughly two and a half hours and forced drivers onto northbound State Route 33 as investigators worked the scene.
According to the California Highway Patrol, the collision was reported around 8:56 p.m. Saturday on the southbound 101, north of State Route 33. The driver, a 47-year-old woman from Salt Lake City, Utah, was behind the wheel of a southbound 2016 BMW 328i when she struck the pedestrian, who was walking in the freeway's No. 1 lane — the far-left lane, closest to the center divider.
Ventura City Fire Department personnel pronounced the woman dead at the scene. Authorities have not released her identity beyond confirming she was a Ventura resident, and they have not disclosed why she was walking on the freeway or whether drugs or alcohol were considered factors in the crash. The circumstances of the collision remain under investigation.
Freeway Shut Down for Hours During Investigation
All southbound lanes of the 101 were closed for approximately two and a half hours while CHP officers investigated, with traffic diverted onto northbound State Route 33 during the closure. The agency is asking anyone who witnessed the crash or has relevant information to call its Ventura office at 805-662-2640.
Part of a Troubling Pattern on This Stretch of Freeway
This is not the first fatal pedestrian crash on this corridor in recent months. A 67-year-old Oxnard man was struck and killed on southbound Highway 101 in Ventura on Aug. 25, 2026, near the Main Street exit after apparently walking from the shoulder into traffic lanes, according to the Ventura County Star. That crash, reported around 6:30 p.m., involved a pickup truck driven by a Thousand Oaks man.
Roughly a year before that, in September 2025, a pedestrian died after being struck on southbound Highway 101 near the same State Route 33 interchange, per a separate Ventura County Star report. That collision was reported just after 11:20 p.m., and officers arrived to find the man already dead in the fast lane; the driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators. KEYT reported that the pedestrian had walked into a traffic lane for unknown reasons when a 2024 Honda struck him, and that two of the freeway's three lanes were closed for about 90 minutes afterward, according to KEYT.
Freeway pedestrian fatalities are not unique to Ventura. In September 2024, a pedestrian was struck and killed on eastbound Highway 101 near Winnetka Avenue in Woodland Hills, prompting the temporary closure of the first two lanes on both sides of the freeway, ABC7 Los Angeles reported; all lanes reopened shortly before 10 a.m. that morning.
As of Sunday, CHP had not released further details on Saturday's crash, and the investigation into what led the woman onto the freeway continues.
