GILROY
– Six Gilroy teens were injured – including two seriously
– Wednesday afternoon when their car ran off a windy rural road
west of Gilroy and slammed into a tree.
Emergency workers had to battle their way down a steep hill to
reach the 1990 Honda that plunged off the west side of Pole Line
Road north of the Hecker Pass Highway just after 2:20 p.m., and at
least one of the victims was reportedly injured seriously enough to
be airlifted by helicopter to an area hospital.
GILROY – Six Gilroy teens were injured – including two seriously – Wednesday afternoon when their car ran off a windy rural road west of Gilroy and slammed into a tree.
Emergency workers had to battle their way down a steep hill to reach the 1990 Honda that plunged off the west side of Pole Line Road north of the Hecker Pass Highway just after 2:20 p.m., and at least one of the victims was reportedly injured seriously enough to be airlifted by helicopter to an area hospital.
The driver of the car, 17-year-old Gilroy High School junior Tomas Gonzalez, complained of chest pains and was airlifted and is at Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto, where he remained hospitalized in intensive care Thursday morning with unspecified injuries.
Two 15-year-old girls sustained major injuries in the crash, according to the California Highway Patrol. One suffered a head injury and broken wrist, and another suffered a broken arm and a foot laceration. The victims’ names were not released because they are juveniles.
Three other passengers sustained moderate injuries. The CHP reported a 15-year-old male suffered lacerations to his face and head as well as body trauma, while a 15-year-old female passenger complained of pain in her head and right leg, as well as a laceration to her elbow. A 16-year-old male passenger complained of unspecified pain.
Witnesses recounted a disturbing scene before emergency workers from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and CHP arrived on scene.
“I went down there and there was one guy with his head bleeding holding onto a girl to keep her from falling down the hill,” said witness Pete Arballo, a Gilroy man who was driving on Pole Line Road when one of the accident victims flagged him down for help. “The rest were just kind of laying in the car and one guy had his leg hanging out the window.
“I told two of them to go up to the road and lay down, and I tried to be calm but it was scary,” he said. “I was asking them questions but they were all in shock.”
A CHP spokeswoman said Thursday morning that no one was arrested after the crash, and there is no indication alcohol was involved. However, a CHP officer at the scene Wednesday said one of the teens admitted to drinking a beer earlier in the day.
Jose Hernandez, an advisor for Gilroy High School’s Latinos program, described Gonzalez as a “good kid” who came to the high school last year from a family of migrant farmworkers.
The car was traveling at an unspecified rate of speed in clear and dry conditions when the crash occurred, the CHP said, and only the driver was wearing a seatbelt.
One lane of Pole Line Road was closed for 45 minutes.
