4 Die as Car Plows Into Pedestrians

It was a typical Friday night in Isla Vista, a densely populated neighborhood in the shadow of UC Santa Barbara. People were out looking for fun. Nicholas Bourdakis and Christopher Divis were walking down the 6500 block of Sabado Tarde Road on their way to hear a local band, along with three others.

Then, about 11 p.m., David Edward Attias, a freshman from Santa Monica, drove his black Saab down the street.

He was driving at freeway speed in an area with a 25 mph limit, according to police.

He sideswiped a car, then another, and another, eight in all. His car also plowed into people, authorities said. Bodies went flying. One man was knocked out of his socks and shoes. Smoke hung above the street.

Attias’ mangled car came to a stop a few seconds and 40 feet later. Behind him were piles of twisted metal, shredded clothing--and blood. Five people had been hit; four died before paramedics arrived and the fifth was clinging to life. Attias suffered cuts and bruises.

“I had never seen that kind of carnage on a residential street in my 28-year career,” said Santa Barbara County Fire Department Capt. Charlie Johnson. “It looked like a war zone.”

Heather Vaniman and her boyfriend were entering her apartment when they heard a series of ear-splitting thumps and clangs. They ran to the scene, unsure what happened. Soon, scores of others joined them, close to 200 in all.

When Vaniman peeked inside Attias’ car to check on him, Attias jumped out and ran.

“He’s the driver, he’s the driver!” she screamed, pointing at the 18-year-old with a slight build and light brown hair.

As some tried to help the victims, others set upon Attias, who was in the street, screaming and trying to get away, according to witnesses. People in the crowd tackled him. Angry and dazed by what they had seen, some kicked him.

“It seemed like people were trying to get some type of twisted justice,” said Daniel Conway, Vaniman’s boyfriend.

The crowd held Attias down until police arrived. After he refused a breath test, authorities drew blood to determine if he was on drugs or alcohol. He was taken to the Santa Barbara Jail, where Saturday he was booked on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

Sheriff’s spokesman Michael Burridge said that, at the scene, Attias displayed signs of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Authorities are waiting for blood test results to determine if a DUI charge is appropriate. Attias is scheduled to appear Monday in Santa Barbara Superior Court.

His Santa Monica address is the same as that of successful television director Daniel Attias, highly regarded for his work on such popular television series as “The Sopranos” and “Ally McBeal.”

“We have no comment except for the terrible grief we feel for all the families involved,” said a man at the address who identified himself as Daniel Attias.

The accident killed Bourdakis, 20, a UC Santa Barbara sophomore from a San Francisco suburb; Divis, 20, a UC Santa Barbara junior from San Diego; Ruth Levy, a student at Santa Barbara City College from Northern California, and a 27-year-old man. Authorities had not released his name late Saturday pending notification of his family.

Albert Levy, Ruth’s brother, was in critical condition Saturday at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara.

In Isla Vista on Saturday, a dazed community did its best to make sense of what happened. Mike Vos lost a roommate, Divis, and another close friend, Bourdakis. The 19-year-old Vos said that just before the accident, his two friends had left one party and headed to another to hear a live band.

He was just a couple of minutes behind his friends when he happened upon the horrific scene. It wasn’t until the next morning that he found out his friends were involved.

“The fact that two of my friends are gone just does not compute,” Vos said. “Now we are just trying to remember what good guys they were.”

Divis was a junior mechanical engineering major who was bright and artistic. He was a straight-A student who grew up in the northern San Diego suburb of Vista.

“Work and study, that was what he did.” said Divis’ mother, Sally, a chemistry technician at Cal State San Marcos. “He was so bright and so much fun to be with.”

Bourdakis, who grew up in a suburb just outside San Francisco, was an undeclared sophomore. He wanted to pursue a career as an aviator, already had a pilot’s license, and flew often at Santa Barbara Municipal Airport.

Vos said that in the coming days, friends of the two young men would gather some of their photos and mementos and bury them on a nearby beach.

Few coming in and out of Attias’ dorm said they knew him. Clorinda Witkowski, a 19-year-old freshman and Attias’ neighbor, said there had been some friction between Attias and others. She described him as quirky and unique.

Isla Vista, with 20,000 residents in a single square mile, is a dense, unincorporated community of narrow streets and low-slung apartment buildings. About half of Isla Vista is made up of twentysomethings and college students.

Young people who lived in the area said Sabado Tarde is the second of the college town’s two main party drags, the other being Del Playa, or D.P. in local argot. Sabado Tarde has sidewalks, but on weekend nights many walk the streets, the better to mingle.

“On a Friday night in I.V. there are always people in the street,” said Erin Gaenslen, an 18-year-old freshman. “You should never drive in those known busy areas like D.P. and Sabado Tarde.”

On Saturday, a makeshift shrine of flowers and cards was erected near a telephone pole.

Undeterred by a downpour, dozens crowded around the shrine, some crying. At the crash scene stood a dazed young woman who would not give her name. She said she had been up all night because her roommate, her roommate’s boyfriend and a third friend had gone out for a party but never came back.

She quietly gave a CHP officer her roommate’s name. The officer checked with a supervisor, confirming her worst fears. The woman collapsed on the street, wailing. She had to be carried to her apartment by friends.

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Times staff writers Tony Perry, Margaret Talev, Nedra Rhone and Richard Winton and researcher Penny Love contributed to this story.