Gilroy
– A big-rig overturned Tuesday afternoon on northbound U.S. 101,
sparking a grass fire near Bailey Avenue and spurring multiple
accidents in Morgan Hill as road closures snarled freeway traffic
and pushed thousands of rush-hour commuters onto South County
streets.
Gilroy – A big-rig overturned Tuesday afternoon on northbound U.S. 101, sparking a grass fire near Bailey Avenue and spurring multiple accidents in Morgan Hill as road closures snarled freeway traffic and pushed thousands of rush-hour commuters onto South County streets.
The three-car crash caused only minor injuries at 2:45pm, but as the California Highway Patrol diverted traffic onto Cochrane Road, accidents began to crop up across Morgan Hill: one at U.S. 101 and Cochrane Road, one at Cochrane Road and Cochrane Circle, and one at U.S. 101 and Dunne Avenue. By 4pm, northbound traffic had clogged U.S. 101 as far south as Dunne Avenue, and drivers started getting ugly: At 4:14pm, one caller told CHP that cars were passing on the right-hand shoulder and “driving crazy.” The congestion spilled beyond the freeway to Cochrane Road, Dunne Avenue, and side streets such as Monterey Road and Santa Teresa Boulevard.
Gilory Resident Gloria Diaz witnessed the second, minor accident as she exited southbound U.S. 101 onto Cochrane. She had already spent 45 minutes in traffic returning from a seminar in San Jose.
“I was driving down the offramp and saw one car smack right into the back of another,” said Diaz, who works at North Coast Medical in Morgan Hill. “He just wasn’t paying attention. It was stop and go.”
She later saw the drivers exchanging information and said they appeared to be OK.
Diaz’s colleague, Victor Pascali of Campbell, said he was content to hang out at Rosie’s at the Beach in downtown Morgan Hill while things cleared.
“I live in Campbell, so I’m stuck for now,” he said. “Just hanging out here till things calm down … ordering some tacos.”
Morgan Hill resident Bruce Gault was returning home from San Jose at 4:30pm when he encountered the traffic: a sea of cars moving southbound, many rubbernecking the cars frozen in the northbound lanes. On his motorcycle, Gault could weave between the stopped cars.
“I was passing people, and boy, I felt sorry for them!” said Gault. After returning to his home in the Madrone area, he watched diverted traffic streaming past his doorstep, and decided not to make an afternoon business call in downtown Morgan Hill. “Coming off of Cochrane onto Monterey Road, it’s totally inundated with cars. It’s too much of a hassle to get back home, so I just didn’t go.”
By 5:30pm, CHP reported that traffic was flowing southbound on U.S. 101, and that the northbound lanes might be cleared by 6pm. Just before 6pm, another driver hit a fire hydrant on Tennant Avenue, blocking a lane of traffic, and a collision at the intersection of Church Street and Tennant Avenue forced CHP to block traffic at another point.
