Three Gavilan College basketball players – Andrel Gaines, Billy Heard and Devontea Johnson – are in Bay Area hospitals tonight after they and two other passengers were involved in a car wreck around 2 a.m. Sunday morning near Millbrae on southbound U.S. 101.
Gaines is in the worst condition, suffering major head trauma and using a ventilator to breathe, according to Gavilan Athletic Director Ron Hannon, who visited Gaines Sunday morning.
Heard, a sophomore forward, was driving the car after the group left San Francisco around 2 a.m. Heard swerved to avoid a tire left on the highway and hit a median, which caused the vehicle to spin out until the car came to rest facing the wrong direction on Highway 101. An oncoming vehicle slammed head-on into their car, according to Hannon.
Gaines was taken to San Francisco General Hospital and was unresponsive until noon today and has attempted to breathe on his own. He’s since been put into a medically induced coma and remains on a ventilator, said former Gilroy High boys basketball coach Jeremy Dirks, who coached Gaines his senior season 2009-10.
Heard has serious injuries but is conscious, according to Hannon, who said “he recognized who I was. The nurse asked him to move his toes, which he did.” He suffered several broken bones, including a broken jaw. Johnson has a compound fracture in his lower leg and is being treated at Stanford Medical Center.
Hannon spoke with Johnson Sunday morning who described the accident. He said they watched the oncoming vehicle barrel toward their car. It’s unknown if drugs or alcohol were involved.
“They’re really responsible, with their heads on straight. I’d be really caught off-guard if our guys were involved in (drinking and driving),” Hannon said. He also said that he had heard from Gavilan head coach Tito Addison that the driver of the other vehicle was drunk, though the Dispatch cannot confirm this at this time.
The condition and details regarding the two other passengers is unknown at this time; as is the condition of the driver/passengers of the other vehicle.
Addison spoke with the California High Way Patrol Sunday morning, though the CHP could not be reached for comment Sunday evening. Check back for details from the CHP Monday.
The Gavilan Rams men’s basketball team is scheduled to begin the 2011-12 season Thursday at the Las Positas Tournament in Livermore, but Hannon said that the team will meet in the next day or so to decide what to do with the start of their season.
