Hollister resident Omar Carino Mendez, 33, was killed in Monday’s seven-vehicle accident on Highway 25, according to Capt. Eric Taylor of the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office.
The accident involving six cars and a big rig resulted in the death of Mendez and closed Highway 25 in both directions Monday afternoon, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Northbound and southbound sections of Highway 25 were closed until early Tuesday morning.
The incident occurred Monday evening during rush hour, when cars began to slow for an “unknown reason” in stop-and-go traffic, CHP Officer Herb Kellogg told the Free Lance on Tuesday morning. The driver of the big rig did not bring his vehicle to a stop in time and hit a 2014 Ford F150, which hit a 1999 Honda Accord and started a“chain reaction collision,” the officer said.
Mendez had been in the Honda Accord.
At least five people were injured. Parties were transported by helicopter to hospitals that included the Regional Medical Center San Jose, Stanford and Natividad Medical Center for care, according to Kellogg.
A total of nine people were involved in the accident, according to the CHP. With the exception of the big-rig driver residing in Fresno, all the other occupants were from Hollister, according to the CHP.
At 5:27 p.m. Monday, the CHP reported a white sedan had been under a big rig near Shore Road, but later reports showed it was actually a large pick-up truck.
“It may have looked like a sedan but it was a Ford F150,” Kellogg said. “And it was partially underneath but not completely. It didn’t get run over in that regard. The trailer had kind of gone around and it may have looked like it was under it.”
Northbound Highway 25 reopened at 12:14 a.m. Tuesday morning, and southbound Highway 25 reopened about an hour later, he said.
“We don’t know why the traffic slowed,” said the officer, who added it is still under investigation. “But regardless of that fact of why traffic had slowed, it’s still the drivers’ responsibility to bring their vehicle to a stop behind the vehicle in front of them.”
Cars on southbound Highway 25 turned onto Bolsa Road on Monday evening to avoid almost standstill traffic. Others turned onto a dirt-and-gravel side frontage road slightly farther south.
The big rig was carrying about 2,000 pounds of produce and the vehicle’s driver was OK, according to initial reports from CHP.
It was the second fatal accident in two days on Highway 25. On Sunday night, a 37-year-old Hollister man, Armando Gonzalez, was killed after being struck by a car driven by 23-year-old Hollister resident Robert Thomas, who is suspected of driving under the influence in the incident.
