Four restaurant workers hospitalized after hit-and-run driver careens into Dona Esther’s Restaurant
In the pre-dawn hours of Thanksgiving Day, Alfonso Castaneda didn’t feel very thankful. He was driving toward Hazel Hawkins Hospital thinking he had lost four good friends and employees to a teenaged hit-and-run drunk driver – right in front of his own restaurant.
“At first it seemed like my world was over,” said the owner of San Juan Bautista’s popular Doña Esther’s Restaurant.
He prayed to his late grandmother, for whom the restaurant was named.
The four kitchen workers, all related, had just got off their shift at 11 p.m. and were standing in front of the eatery on Third Street as it closed, like they do every night after serving up hundreds of hot plates of Mexican fare for the restaurant’s hungry customers.
“They were talking shop, having a smoke, standing outside the front door on Third Street,” said Castaneda.
But their respite didn’t last long. Out of the blue, a white Suburban Chevy SUV came careening toward them from across the street. It took out the four wooden porch posts that hold up the sidewalk canopy the workers stood under and an old-fashioned street lamp. Along the way, the Suburban also struck the four workers: Martin Pineda, 38, Juan Pineda, 24, Austroberto “Beto” Pineda, 20, and Samuel Juarez, 21, all residents of San Juan Bautista.
“They ran over – completely over – two of the victims,” said Sgt. Wes Walker, who, along with Detective Chris Green, is investigating the case.
The vehicle continued plowing down the sidewalks, across Franklin Street and into the Mission Burger parking lot, then came to a stop at a fence that divides Becky McGovern’s house from the burger cafe. Witnesses said two young Hispanic adult males jumped out and fled on foot toward Second Street toward the historic Mission San Juan Bautista.
“It was a pretty ugly scene,” added Walker.
Downtown San Juan Bautista soon became ablaze with activity. Six sheriff’s units, ambulances, the SJB Fire Department and a helicopter ambulance descended on the scene within minutes. Martin Pineda was life-flighted out to San Jose Medical Center, and the other three injured men were transported by ground to Hazel Hawkins. All have since been released and are recovering.
A swarm of law enforcement officers combed the alleys and backyards of San Juan, but they never found the suspects that night.
McGovern was awakened by a phone call from a neighbor, who alerted her about the horrendous incident just a block away from her front door.
“I jumped up and saw all these police cars,” said McGovern. “Jesus, there must have been six of them. The police were running all around our house, in our backyard. So we locked the doors.”
After putting some clues together – running the license plate of the Suburban and listening to descriptions of eyewitnesses — Walker figured the driver was 18-year-old Carlo Alvarez of Hollister.
“I talked to his parents,” said Walker. “The next day when Carlo came home, his parents turned him in to us.”
Alvarez is being charged with driving under the influence, felony hit and run and driving with an open container.
Sheriff Curtis Hill said while it was too late to test Alvarez for his blood alcohol levels the day after, the charges are nonetheless serious.
“The felony drunk driving might be knocked down, but we’re going to work with the D.A. on the felony hit and run,” said Hill.
In September Alvarez was charged with misdemeanor battery against “Paul M.,” according to court records, for which he received one year’s probation and 10 days in jail, converted to 80 hours in a community work program. He has yet to finish that sentence.
The identity of Alvarez’ companion that night is still unknown, and Alvarez has not told police who it was.
Sheriff’s deputies also are investigating whether the teen was served alcohol at Daisy’s Saloon.
“I wasn’t here,” said John Oates, the day-shift bartender at Daisy’s. “So I don’t know what happened. It wouldn’t have happened on my shift.”
“Daisy’s is not cooperating,” said Walker. “Were facing resistance from them and we’ve heard a lot of rumors.”
One witness, who declined to give his name, said he saw the suspects earlier that evening in Daisy’s and remembered they were behaving obnoxiously and vomiting indiscriminately on the floor.
“I had to step over the barf to get out the door,” said the witness.
Marilyn Roascio, the “Mom” of Mom and Pop’s Saloon two doors down the street, said she had heard the two drunks were thrown out of Daisy’s, after which they tried to get into Mom and Pop’s but were refused.
“That’s one thing we don’t tolerate,” said Roascio. “We just don’t like to put up with people who are drunk. We cut them off.”
Restaurateur Al Castaneda also said he heard that the two suspects had been drunk at Daisy’s, got kicked out, then went to Mom and Pop’s, where they weren’t allowed in.
“Then they got p-o’ed and took off,” said Castaneda.
That’s apparently when they attempted to drive away in the Suburban that had been parked in front of Jardines Restaurant, also located on Third Street. According to Walker, Alvarez immediately traveled across both lanes of Third Street onto the sidewalk of the opposite side of the street, struck the 8×8 posts, the four men standing and the lamppost.
“There were live wires on the ground,” Casteneda said. “You can imagine what was going through my head. I thought possibly three of them were dead!”
On his way to Hazel Hawkins and in the solitude of his car, Castaneda prayed to his late grandmother and asked her for help and guidance.
“I asked her, ‘What am I going to do?'” he said.
It turned out that on Thanksgiving Day he learned all his workers would be OK and were released from the hospitals, some with minor injuries and others with slightly more severe ones. Martin Pineda, who was flown to San Jose, had deep head lacerations but was released from the hospital on Friday in good condition.
“The bottom line is nobody died,” he said. “What a miracle, what a blessing. I feel so grateful I can’t begin to tell you. I feel like a thousand pounds is off my back.”
Police are still looking for witnesses.
“It was a very violent crash,” said Walker. “Were asking anybody who has information to come forward.”
If you have any information regarding this incident, please contact Sgt. Wes Walker or Detective Chris Green at the San Benito County Sheriff’s Department at 831-636-4080.
Staff Writer Aeon Hopi Schmoock contributed to this report.
