Rebecca Plaza celebrated what would have been her son’s 20th birthday by placing a picture of him with a cake on the tree on Arroyo Circle where he died a year earlier.
Jonathan Flores was driving at 7:20 p.m. on April 1 from a meeting at Power in Praise Ministries, where he was a missionary, to Chuck E. Cheese, where he worked, when he lost control of his car and struck a tree. His air bag worked, but his speed and the tree’s unforgiving mass killed him.
Now his parents are asking Gilroy to make the frontage road safer, perhaps by knocking down the trees and putting up a guardrail, like the ones on the freeway just behind the trees.
“I understand the conditions of being distracted and driving too fast,” said Rebecca Plaza, who works as a secretary at South Valley Middle School and knows of at least one other traffic death at the same spot. “If there were barriers instead of trees, it would put them in the hospital, not killed them. There are always going to be fast drivers and distracted drivers. I think the city can do more to make the road safe.”
Eddie Plaza, who works at Kaiser Permanente, said witnesses estimated Jonathan was doing 45 to 60 mph in a 30 mph zone. Standing by the tree at the entrance to Hometown Buffet, cars speed around a blind curve and onto a straightaway day and night like it’s a race track, the family said.
“I just want to make sure other families don’t have to go through what we went through,” said Jonathan’s mother. “It’s just so senseless.”
She has spoken with Gilroy traffic engineer Henry Servin and is planning to ask for support from the City Council at its next meeting. She’s also looking for other Arroyo Circle accident victims. The tree-lined circle runs from the Outlets, past the Kaiser medical center and takes quite a few sharp turns.
Servin said he is researching data about the street, which is older, despite looking new.
“We do have curve warning signs,” he said. “When we look at it, it’s an older part of town even though it’s by the Outlets. One thought is to look at it day and night and observe traffic patterns.”
The tree is covered with notes from friends and classmates. Jonathan was studying criminal justice at Gavilan College and wanted to be a police officer. He had been in Mexico for three months last year as a missionary working in an orphanage. He had been practicing for Easter service on his last night and was going to the pizza restaurant to ask for a few days off to visit his ailing grandmother. He was supposed to return to the church at 9 p.m. to help his father close it up.
When neither parent heard from him, they were worried, but not overly so because their son was usually no trouble.
“This was the first time he didn’t come home when he said he would,” Rebecca Plaza said. “He was always with us, even when he was away. He was always texting. I started texting him and calling and leaving voicemail, but nothing. I don’t remember being worried. I always had peace and trust with God. I never really worried about him.”
She was going to call the police, but the Plazas figured that if something bad had happened, they would have heard from them. Then, at 1 a.m., the doorbell rang and the coroner was at their home, less than two miles from where the accident happened. They had heard sirens earlier, but didn’t connect it with Jonathan.
“As soon as my husband saw the man with the clipboard, he knew it was Jonathan,” she said. “He yelled, crying and screaming and I joined him.
Her other two sons, who attend Gilroy High School, were devastated.
“They try to be strong for me but at times I see them in the other room and their eyes are red and puffy and I know they’ve been crying. We tell them it’s good to show their feelings. God has been our strength. If it wasn’t for that, I’d be a mess.”
