A combination of rain-slickened roads and inattentive driving is
being blamed for a rash of weekend accidents, the California
Highway Patrol said.
A combination of rain-slickened roads and inattentive driving is being blamed for a rash of weekend accidents, the California Highway Patrol said.
Between Friday evening and Sunday morning, the Hollister-Gilroy CHP Unit responded to approximately 30 car accidents throughout the region.
More showers are predicted for tonight, Wednesday and Thursday. While the soggy weather lasts, slippery driving conditions will likely continue and motorists should be extra-cautious when driving, said CHP officer Terry Mayes.
“People need to use their common sense and keep a lot more space between their vehicle and the person in front of them,” she said. “And you need to be extra careful in areas like northbound 101 near Cochrane where you know there is going to be a bottleneck.”
Mayes also warned of potholes that fill up with water and highway off- or on-ramps with curves.
“You cannot panic and hit your breaks on curves in the rain,” she said. “Every time you hit the brakes, the car goes straight through the curve and you’ll end up where you don’t want to be.”
The series of crashes began at 6:30 p.m. Friday when a Hollister woman was injured in an accident on Highway 25 near the entrance to a parking lot just north of the San Benito-Santa Clara County line.
Ana Encinas, 49, of Hollister refused medical treatment for a complaint of pain to her neck, which she injured as a passenger in a 2000 Honda Accord driven by Dean Nichols, 53, of Hollister. Nichols’ vehicle was leaving the parking lot just ahead of a 2000 Toyota 4-Runner driven by Renuma Raju, 27, of Hollister, the CHP said.
Nichols was trying to enter Highway 25 when traffic ahead of him abruptly slowed. Raju, trailing Nichols, apparently never saw the Honda stop as he started to increase his speed to merge onto the highway and struck the rear of Nichols’ car, the CHP said.
Two San Juan Bautista residents were injured in another accident at 4:20 a.m. Saturday on Highway 129 at the U.S. 101 interchange.
Michelle Perez, 32, of San Juan Bautista and an unidentified 6-year-old boy who was a passenger in Perez’s minivan were both taken to Hazel Hawkins Hospital where they were treated for minor injuries, the CHP said.
The accident happened when Beth Wilderman, 53, of Boulder Creek was westbound on Highway 129 in a blue 1990 Honda Civic, the CHP said. Perez, who was stopped on the U.S. 101 off-ramp in a white 1995 Honda Odyssey, was starting to make a left turn onto Highway 129 when Wilderman reportedly failed to stop for a stop sign and struck the side of the minivan.
The youth, whose name was not released because of his age, sustained a small bruise to his forehead, the CHP said. Wilderman was not injured in the crash.
A Gilroy man and a Hollister woman were injured in an accident later Saturday on Highway 25 just north of the Highway 156 intersection Saturday.
The 5:05 p.m. accident happened when a red 1991 Mazda pickup driven by Clyde McSheehan, 47, of Gilroy was northbound on Highway 25 approaching Hudner Lane, when for an unknown reason McSheehan pulled onto the shoulder of the road, the CHP said.
McSheehan suddenly turned left across the northbound lane, the CHP said, and he drove directly in front of a northbound 1995 Ford Explorer driven by Edward Guiza, 40, of Hollister.
Because of the McSheehan’s sudden maneuver, Guiza could not avoid a collision and struck the pickup on the driver’s door, the CHP said.
Tina Guiza, 40, a passenger in the Explorer, sustained minor cuts and bruises and was taken to Hazel Hawkins Hospital along with McSheehan, who sustained minor head injuries, the CHP said.
Guiza and McSheehan were treated and later released. Neither alcohol nor drugs were a factor in the accident, the CHP said.
Zeb Carabello of South Valley Newspapers’ Gilroy bureau contributed to this report.
