A Santa Barbara teenager is dead following a head-on crash Wednesday night that shut down the northbound lanes of Highway 101 near Carpinteria for several hours.
The California Highway Patrol says 16-year-old Daniel Perez entered the highway going the wrong way, using the Lake Casitas off-ramp as an on-ramp. His car flipped onto its roof after colliding with a semi-truck in the slow lane.
The driver of that truck was not injured.
Perez was just starting his junior year at San Marcos High School and, according to teachers, was a good student with a strong GPA.