Four accidents over a five-day stretch in the area left two dead
and four others hospitalized, while one of the wrecks involved a
Greyhound bus with 51 passengers that somehow avoided any injuries
after the vehicle collided with a telephone pole.
Four accidents over a five-day stretch in the area left two dead and four others hospitalized, while one of the wrecks involved a Greyhound bus with 51 passengers that somehow avoided any injuries after the vehicle collided with a telephone pole.
The most recent accident was Wednesday, when three San Jose residents and a Los Banos man were hospitalized after a head-on car accident on U.S. Highway 152 outside of Gilroy, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Dennis Galindo, 39, of San Jose, and Raymond Estrada, 45, of Los Banos, were flown via medical helicopter to Regional Medical Center of San Jose and Valley Medical Center respectively with major injuries following the crash, which occurred around 3:40 p.m., the CHP said.
Dennis Galindo suffered a broken neck, broken leg and collapsed lung, while his passengers, Yvonne Galindo, 36, and and a five-month-old child, were taken to Valley Medical Center as a precaution.
The CHP said Estrada suffered broken legs and complaints of stomach pain.
Dennis Galindo was driving a Toyota Tundra pickup truck west on Highway 152 when the vehicle drifted into the eastbound lane and collided with Estrada’s Ford pickup truck, according to a CHP report.
The highway was shut down from Bloomfield Road to Lovers Lane until 5:40 p.m. The cause of the collision is under investigation. Alcohol or drugs do not appear to be a factor, according to the CHP.
In relation to the second of two fatalities in the stretch, funeral services are planned for Sunday to memorialize Trevor David Gonzalez, a 21-year-old Hollister man who died in a single-car accident on Fairview Road on Tuesday morning.
According to Grunnagle Ament Nelson Funeral Home, visitation will be held Sunday from noon to 8:30 p.m., with the recitation of the rosary beginning at 7 p.m. at the funeral home, located at 870 San Benito St. Family and friends will leave the mortuary Monday morning at 9:30 a.m. for a 10 a.m. Mass at Sacred Heart Church. Interment will be at Calvary Cemetery.
The California Highway Patrol reported that Gonzalez was driving a 1992 Nissan Maxima northbound on Fairview Road, north of Santa Ana Valley Road, just after 8:30 a.m. on July 26 when a witness traveling southbound said the car drifted toward that lane before Gonzalez overcorrected to the right.
The Nissan went off the eastern edge of the two-lane road and struck a barbed wire fence, rotated clockwise and continued across a dirt driveway prior to hitting a second fence on the left side of the car. According to the CHP, the vehicle then overturned several times in the dirt and grass field.
Gonzalez, who was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected from the driver-side door as the car overturned. He was pronounced dead at the scene after a lengthy CPR was performed, the CHP said.
On Monday shortly after midnight, a Greyhound bus driver lost control of a vehicle eastbound on Highway 152, east of Bloomfield Avenue, according to the CHP.
The driver, a 52-year-old male from Lakewood, lost control and crossed into the westbound lane. The bus ran off the road and the front of it collided with a telephone pole.
Wires fell onto the road, while there were no injuries. The CHP closed the road for about five hours.
And a week ago, a 48-year-old Hollister man died in a solo motorcycle wreck on U.S. Highway 101 in Gilroy, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Ray John Enriquez on July 22 crashed his motorcycle into a metal guardrail along the southbound highway’s center divide north of the Leavesley Road exit at 10:35 p.m. after maneuvering from the far right lane to the far left lane, CHP Officer Tiffany Lopez.
Witness statements revealed Enriquez was traveling at “a high rate of speed” when he lost control of his motorcycle, collided with the guardrail and was thrown into a wooden post, Lopez said.
Enriquez was pronounced dead at the scene, Lopez said.
