Gilroy
– The Gilroy Browns youth football organization plans to donate
the proceeds of its next Jeff Garcia autograph raffle to the
grieving family of an opposing team’s player.
Gilroy – The Gilroy Browns youth football organization plans to donate the proceeds of its next Jeff Garcia autograph raffle to the grieving family of an opposing team’s player.
Single mom Shonda Pritchard, 31, of San Jose, died in a U.S. 101 wreck Saturday morning while driving her 8-year-old son, Jeremy McNulty, to a football game in Gilroy against the Browns.
It was 6:35am, and Pritchard was southbound at about 80 to 85 mph when she lost control of her sport-utility vehicle for an unknown reason, according to California Highway Patrol officers. The vehicle hit a bush and two posts and overturned near the Masten Avenue exit.
Pritchard’s family is without health insurance or money to pay for her funeral or the hospital bills to mend a broken hip Jeremy suffered in the crash, according to Kathy Robinson, president of Jeremy’s Oak Grove Youth Football organization.
Pritchard also left behind a 4-year-old son, Kyle.
“We feel bad at the Gilroy Browns,” president Rich Salazar said Tuesday. “We are going to try and do a fund-raiser here this weekend and try to get them some money.”
At every game, the Browns raffle off a selection of their Browns hats and jerseys signed by Garcia, starting quarterback for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns and a Gilroy native. They usually raise anywhere from $200 to $500 each time, Salazar said.
Jeremy’s Oak Grove Raptors played the Browns to a scoreless tie in the Mighty Mite game last Saturday morning.
Wrong-way wreck
Meanwhile, six people with life-threatening injuries from a separate, alcohol-related wreck early Monday morning are improving, according to the CHP.
Rosalia Carillo, 45, of San Jose, died in that head-on collision between an allegedly drunk driver – going the wrong way on the six-lane freeway – and a carload of relatives from San Jose and East Palo Alto.
The CHP was expected Wednesday to file charges of gross vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol causing death against Graciela Plascencia, 30, of San Jose.
Two of Plascencia’s friends, both Gilroy residents, were asleep in her car at the time, the CHP reported. Mary Gayton, 32, was listed in critical condition Wednesday afternoon at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. Veronica Prado, 28, and Plascencia were listed in fair condition.
The trio had been drinking at least two San Jose nightclubs, according to CHP spokeswoman Terry Mayes.
Plascencia got onto northbound 101 the wrong way at the San Martin Avenue off-ramp, just north of the accident site, the CHP learned from the other car’s driver, 22-year-old Sergio Lua of East Palo Alto, who recovered enough to give a statement.
Lua reportedly said he was following his brother-in-law’s vehicle when he saw Plascencia’s headlights enter the freeway. His brother-in-law saw them first and got out of the way, but Lua didn’t have time to swerve. Plascencia’s car hit his going about 65 mph, the CHP reported.
“She was on him, literally, in an instant,” Mayes said.
Mayes said the CHP expects to have Plascencia’s blood-alcohol test results next week.
As of press time, Plascencia and her friends were still patients at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, according to the CHP.
Plascencia was only one of eight people involved who didn’t suffer at least life-threatening injuries.
