GILROY
– Rain may have caused a head-on collision between a 26-year-old
Gilroy woman’s car and a moving van on Watsonville Road, according
to the California Highway Patrol. Three people were injured, one of
them seriously.
GILROY – Rain may have caused a head-on collision between a 26-year-old Gilroy woman’s car and a moving van on Watsonville Road, according to the California Highway Patrol. Three people were injured, one of them seriously.
It was one of six accidents the CHP responded to during Thursday’s rainstorm in the CHP’s Hollister-Gilroy region, which extends into southern San Jose.
The storm “didn’t have that big of an impact,” said CHP Officer Terry Mayes, spokesperson for the Hollister-Gilroy CHP region. Mayes’ division responds to an average of four or five crashes a day without the rain, she said.
In the Watsonville Road accident, moving van passenger Rudy Vargas, 21, of San Jose, was listed in fair condition at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center shortly after noon on Friday. The driver of the van, Arturo Hernandez, 28, of San Jose, was released from Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy after being treated for a minor injury. Andrea Cares, 26, of Gilroy, suffered a minor injury but said she would seek her own medical aid, CHP officers reported.
It had been raining for several hours by 7:25 p.m., when Cares’ 2000 Nissan Sentra skidded into the opposite lane on Watsonville Road, just south of Day Road, and struck the 2001 Sterling moving van.
All three were wearing seat belts, the CHP reported.
In other accidents, a 1998 Buick went off the road and struck a residence at about 7:20 p.m. on the 7200 block of Church Street, according to Gilroy police. It was a hit-and-run, police said; the unidentified driver fled from the scene.
It appeared the driver lost control of the car because he or she was going too fast for the wet conditions, police said.
There were also two non-injury accidents on the outskirts of Gilroy and one near Hollister, according to the CHP:
• A car crashed at 4:52 p.m. on the 101 on-ramp from Monterey Street.
• A solo-vehicle crashed at 7 p.m. on Hecker Pass Highway east of Watsonville Road
• A driver who hit a cow at 8:30 p.m. on Spring Grove Road near Hollister. CHP officials did not report on the condition of the cow, but the driver was unhurt.
