A Lucid Gravity struck a children’s toy store at the Montecito Country Mart in California on Monday, coming to rest embedded in the storefront after passing through protective posts and bringing down a structural support pillar.
Santa Barbara police and fire crews were called to 1026 Coast Village Road at about 11:57 a.m. local time for a report of a vehicle into a commercial building.
Only minor injuries were reported in the single-vehicle collision, and nobody was taken to hospital, according to reports from local media outlets.
Additionally, no one inside the store was struck.
Police said the building sustained moderate damage. The cause remains under investigation.
The Scene
Photographs from the scene show the SUV nose-first through the shop entrance with roughly half its length inside the building, the doorframe buckled around it and merchandise scattered across the floor.
A white support pillar lies on the covered walkway outside, snapped at the base. One of the protective posts fronting the row was uprooted entirely, torn out with a section of asphalt still attached, and the paving where it stood is broken open.
A concrete parking stop was displaced from its position several feet away.
Santa Barbara City Fire Truck 71 and an urban search and rescue task force worked at the site through the early afternoon, erecting a temporary timber frame under the roofline where the pillar had been.
“We are working to install a temporary support post until a permanent one can be built,” Captain Bob Kendall said at 1:45 p.m., according to the Santa Barbara Independent.
Battalion Chief Rich Ames told Noozhawk that no injuries were reported, and Police Lieutenant Ethan Ragsdale said fire personnel were assessing whether the building remained safe to occupy.
The vehicle was recovered by flatbed on Monday afternoon. Images of the loaded Gravity show the front fascia destroyed, the bonnet buckled and the front nearside wheel arch torn away, while the passenger compartment, doors and glasshouse appear undamaged.
What Witnesses Described
Accounts gathered by KEYT describe a driver attempting to park who lost control, with the vehicle accelerating in the wrong direction, crossing the walkway and entering the shop.
Local reporter John Palminteri, who photographed the aftermath, gave the same sequence, describing acceleration the wrong way through the protective posts.
The vehicle passed close to Montecito Barbers, immediately adjacent, where a customer was seated in a chair by the front window at the time.
Reporting on the driver has not been consistent.
The Santa Barbara Independent, citing the fire captain, referred to a man driving the vehicle.
KEYT, citing witnesses, described a woman attempting to park. Other outlets did not specify, and no official confirmation of the driver’s identity or account has been released.
Lucid Gravity
The Gravity is Lucid‘s second model and the first SUV.
The Saudi-backed company delivered 1,811 Gravity SUVs in the second quarter, and the model now accounts for roughly 68% of US sales, having set a monthly record in June.
Air sedan volumes have moved the other way, falling to 846 US registrations in the second quarter, the lowest since the third quarter of 2022.
California remains the company’s largest market, and Lucid is currently working through 2026 model-year inventory.
