GILROY
– A Gilroy teen-ager was drunk when he drove into a power pole
Wednesday night, California Highway Patrol officers say. Now he and
a passenger are lying critically injured in San Jose hospitals.
GILROY – A Gilroy teen-ager was drunk when he drove into a power pole Wednesday night, California Highway Patrol officers say. Now he and a passenger are lying critically injured in San Jose hospitals.
The accident happened at 11:25 p.m. north of the city limit, on Buena Vista Avenue just west of Marcella Avenue. Neither of the injured occupants were wearing seat belts, according to the CHP.
Jose Dolores Ortiz III, 18, was ejected from the 1991 Honda sedan he was driving. He was unconscious and suffered bleeding on the brain and broken facial bones, the CHP reported.
The CHP arrested Ortiz on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, enhanced from a misdemeanor to a felony because someone was hurt.
Passenger Steven Q. Due, also 18, was pinned in the car and had to be cut out, the CHP reported. He remained conscious but suffered a broken femur and cuts on his face, the CHP reported. Due is a student at Mount Madonna High School in Gilroy. Administrative official Maryann Puente described him as a “nice kid.”
A CALSTAR helicopter flew Ortiz – who left Mount Madonna in October – to San Jose Medical Center, and a Stanford LifeFlight chopper took Due to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. Both were in critical condition at midday Thursday, according to hospital officials.
Another passenger was in the car at the time of the wreck but fled the scene, the CHP reported. Officers said the young man was about 18 years old, Hispanic, six feet tall and wearing a white T-shirt.
The power pole broke, fell and started a small vegetation fire that was quickly extinguished, according to the CHP.
The Honda was eastbound on Buena Vista when Ortiz made an unsafe turn and hit the pole, the CHP reported.
The CHP’s Hollister-Gilroy division responded to five other vehicle accidents Wednesday, none of them with injury.
