A Lompoc man has died after being struck by a vehicle while crossing North H Street, and police have taken a driver into custody on a warrant and for driving with a suspended license. Cory Smith, identified by police as a 40-year-old Lompoc resident, was struck while crossing the 700 block of North H Street and later died from his injuries, according to Lompoc police.
According to KSBY News, police say Jose Rumualdo, a 30-year-old Lompoc resident, was taken into custody on a warrant and for driving with a suspended license in connection with the incident. Police had not released further information at the time of KSBY's report.
A separate account from Noozhawk identifies the man who died as Cory Smith, 41, of Lompoc, and reports he was hit from behind by a vehicle in the 600 block of North H Street after sunset on Oct. 20. It is not established whether these accounts describe the same collision, and Hoodline is presenting both versions as reported.
Family Describes Final Days at Cottage Hospital
Per the Noozhawk report, Smith's father, Terry, said he arrived at his son's bedside at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital two days after the collision and found him in a medically induced coma, surrounded by machines working to keep him alive. The outlet reported that Smith died that afternoon as his lungs ultimately failed.
Lompoc Police Sgt. Scott Morgan told the outlet that Smith was not in a crosswalk when he was struck and that police were continuing to investigate the circumstances of the incident. The station's report does not indicate whether any additional findings have since been released.
A GoFundMe organized by Smith's father has collected more than $2,700 to cover cremation and other memorial expenses, the same report noted.
Pattern of Pedestrian Crashes Along the Corridor
North H Street has seen other vehicle-pedestrian incidents in recent memory. As reported by the Santa Maria Times, Lompoc police investigated two separate vehicle-versus-pedestrian incidents reported on the same Monday. In one, officers responded around 9:14 p.m. to the 2000 block of North H Street after a vehicle struck a 96-year-old Lompoc man who was trying to cross the roadway; he was taken to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Police said in that case the driver stayed at the scene and cooperated with officers, and that the investigation was ongoing.
Earlier that same evening, around 5:19 p.m., officers began investigating a hit-and-run involving a vehicle and a juvenile pedestrian at North H Street and North Avenue; the juvenile was not hurt, according to the Santa Maria Times. Detectives used Flock license plate recognition cameras to identify the suspected vehicle, and the driver was later contacted, admitted involvement in the collision, and was charged with hit-and-run.
Statewide Trend Shows Pedestrian Deaths Declining Since 2022
Zooming out, data compiled by the California Active Transportation Safety Information Pages shows that statewide pedestrian fatality trends rose from 2016 to 2022 before trending downward since then. That broader pattern does not speak to what has happened specifically in Lompoc or Santa Barbara County, where local investigators continue working through the circumstances of Smith's death.
