Hit-and-Run Victim’s Family Receives $30,000 in Restitution

The mother of 22-year-old Simon Chavez, a Santa Barbara City College student killed last January in a hit-and-run accident on Highway 101, has been awarded a $30,000 settlement in a wrongful-death lawsuit against the driver, Lau Van Huynh. (Huynh has already been charged and sentenced in criminal court for Chavez’s death.) The lawsuit also accuses Absolute Cab Company and one of its drivers of negligence for dropping off an extremely intoxicated Chavez before his destination and not making sure he arrived home safely. That portion of the complaint ​— ​potentially worth a much larger sum in damages ​— ​will be heard in the coming months.