Fired Gilroy High School track and field head coach Alvin
Harrison, in jail facing felony DUI charges, hit another vehicle
from behind on state Highway 73 causing it to overturn and sending
two people to the hospital while wrecking a rental van on a school
athletic field trip. Full article; letter; booking report
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Fired Gilroy High School track and field head coach Alvin Harrison, in jail facing felony DUI charges, hit another vehicle from behind on state Highway 73 causing it to overturn and sending two people to the hospital while wrecking a rental van on a school athletic field trip.
The California Highway Patrol released details of the April 7 accident Thursday. No GHS students were in the van at the time, but Harrison’s twin brother, Calvin, was injured as a passenger.
Officer Devon Boatman of the California Highway Patrol said officers at the scene established that Harrison, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, reached speeds of 80 to 85 mph as he attempted to make a lane change from the center lane into the right lane at 8:59 p.m. Harrison, driving a 2011 Toyota Sienna, hit a 2000 Ford Expedition, driven by Santa Ana resident Eriberto Garcia, 33. The collision caused Garcia to veer across two lanes and into the center divide where his vehicle overturned, Boatman said. Harrison’s van ended up 40 feet off the right side of the highway in a dirt and grassy field.
Both Garcia and Calvin Harrison were taken to the hospital via ambulance. Garcia sustained a laceration on his hand and complained of pain in his neck, back and left leg. Calvin Harrison suffered a cut on his bottom lip and had leg pain, Boatman said.
Alvin Harrison submitted to field sobriety tests, Boatman said, and officers found him to be impaired.
Boatman confirmed that Harrison was driving with a suspended license and produced only a California identification card at the time of the incident. Boatman added that Harrison’s license had not been revoked due to a prior DUI offense.
Harrison is being held at the James A. Musick Facility on $50,000 bail, law enforcement agencies confirmed.
Harrison, 37, pleaded not guilty to charges of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs causing bodily injury to any person other than the driver, driving with a suspended license and driving under the influence while having 0.08 percent or more blood alcohol level, according to Orange County Superior Court records.
In a copy of the complaint filed with the Orange County District Attorney, it lists Harrison’s blood alcohol content at .16 – twice the .08 legal limit – at the time of his arrest.
Harrison, assistant track coach Ryan Johnston and four GHS sprinters were in Southern California to participate in the esteemed Arcadia Invitational last Friday and Saturday.
Gilroy Unified School District Superintendent Debbie Flores acknowledged the incident saying, “obviously drinking on a field trip is wrong and it won’t be tolerated. He has been let go.” Flores stressed that at no time were GHS students in danger. She said the van was not a school district vehicle, but was rented for the purpose of ferrying the student-athletes to the meet.
Flores added that as soon as the district became aware of the circumstances, GHS Athletic Director Jack Daley traveled down to Arcadia to help supervise the rest of the sprinters’ weekend at the tournament and get them home safely.
Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Joel Herrera said that the district collects identification from employees for the I-9 employment forms, but did not have a copy of Harrison’s driver’s license, only a California ID card.
“Obviously this is going to reverberate throughout the entire district,” Herrera said. “And we are going to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
GUSD Trustee Jaime Rosso said, “I’m sure these are the things that we will look deeper into. … I’m sure we will probe those things; look at our procedures and see if something either got missed or do we need to tighten up our procedures to make sure we don’t have a recurrence of what happens. It’s embarrassing. It should have never happened. We will be looking at what we’re going to do; what we can we do to make sure it doesn’t happen again? We will see if our own policies were followed. And if they weren’t, then we will take a look and see where the ball was dropped and take appropriate action on that.”
The group left Gilroy for the event late on Wednesday, April 6. Johnston said he and the sprinters were in the hotel room when Harrison left with the van that Thursday evening.
Herrera said that GHS Athletic Director Daley rented the vehicle from Hertz prior to the trip and that Harrison drove the group down south.
When asked if he was aware that Harrison did not possess an active driver’s license, Daley quickly responded, “no.”
A parent, who has been driving athletes to competitions this season, reported to the Dispatch that there was a request made over the phone Thursday afternoon to bring a valid driver’s license to the Associated Student Body office on the GHS campus.
“Student safety is always at the forefront, and this has caused us to take a closer look at our policies and procedures,” GHS Principal Marco Sanchez said late Thursday. “We are making sure the documentations we have are current and that all our bases are covered.”
Harrison is awaiting an April 19 court appearance at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.
Harrison, who won gold at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics only to have his 2000 medal stripped after admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs, was just four months into his first season at the GHS helm.
Last week, Harrison fired longtime cross country and track and field coaches Art and Cathy Silva, resulting in a rift between some of the athletes.
“The way it was put is that we weren’t doing the job with the distance kids and they weren’t producing,” Art Silva said. “And that he figured that he could do a better job than us and that he didn’t want to coach with us anymore.”
Daley said that the Silvas are back coaching the distance runners and that all the other discipline-specific coaches will remain on staff.
“At this point I’m going to step in as the administrative head coach,” Daley said.
