GILROY
–– A 19-year-old Gilroy man died behind the wheel of a sports
car after colliding head-on with a pickup truck around noon Monday
on Luchessa Avenue during a period of heavy rainfall.
City police declined to name either driver but confirmed,
minutes after the wreck, that the driver of the red Toyota MR2
sports car was dead.
GILROY –– A 19-year-old Gilroy man died behind the wheel of a sports car after colliding head-on with a pickup truck around noon Monday on Luchessa Avenue during a period of heavy rainfall.
City police declined to name either driver but confirmed, minutes after the wreck, that the driver of the red Toyota MR2 sports car was dead.
The deceased driver’s parents and sister arrived at the scene shortly after the crash and wept upon hearing the news.
The police department’s Major Accident Investigation Team is trying to determine the exact cause of the wreck and which driver, if either, was at fault. As of Monday afternoon, MAIT officers had identified weather, speed and mechanical issues as possible factors leading to the wreck, according to police Sgt. Kurt Ashley.
“It will probably take them several days to a weeks before investigators issue a report, Ashley said, “unless they run into some problems.”
The collision crushed the front driver’s corner of the Toyota, impacting all the way back to the driver’s seat. The car came to a rest completely off the road. The other vehicle, a beige Dodge Dakota pickup truck, received heavy front-end damage.
The pickup driver had a sore foot after the wreck but declined medical treatment, according to Ashley. This driver was the sole surviving witness to the accident and gave a statement to police, but police declined to release the statement.
There were no passengers in either vehicle. Police did not say whether the drivers were wearing seat belts.
The Toyota was eastbound on Luchessa Avenue and the pickup westbound, according to police.
Police were called to the scene at 12:08 p.m. and blocked off Luchessa from Princevalle Street to Church Street for several hours Monday afternoon, waiting for a coroner to arrive from San Jose. The dead driver’s body was removed from the scene at about 3:30 p.m., according to police, after which time the wreckage was removed and the street reopened.
This fatal accident was one of at least six wrecks in the South Valley between 11:30 a.m. and noon Monday, during which heavy rain was falling and collecting on roadways. During that half-hour period, California Highway Patrol officers responded to five accidents on U.S. 101 between Coyote and San Juan Bautista.
Two Honda Civics crashed and burst into flames at 11:30 a.m. on U.S. 101 southbound, just south of the Pajaro River bridge near San Juan Bautista. Driver Lori Jean Matteucci, 22, of Santa Clara, complained of pain afterward but declined medical treatment. According to CHP, Matteucci was passing another Civic, driven by Jennifer Diane Tysseland, 27, of Dallas, Texas, when she lost control and struck Tysseland’s car.
The collision disrupted traffic for 20 to 30 minutes and backed cars up to the 10th Street exit, according to CHP Officer Terry Mayes.
At about noon, there was a single-vehicle crash on the on-ramp to southbound U.S. 101 from Monterey Street. An ambulance took the driver of the Dodge Dakota pickup, Christopher Alexander Larkin, 28, of Hollister, to Saint Louise Regional Hospital after he complained of back pain, according to CHP.
Three solo accidents without injury took place on northbound U.S. 101 in the vicinity of the Coyote Creek bridge, according to CHP: one at 11:35 a.m., one at 11:45 a.m. and one at noon.
While the rainy weather was likely a factor in the accidents, Mayes said they could probably have been avoided if the drivers had driven more carefully.
