A board of education trustee for Morgan Hill Unified School District is in the hospital Feb. 27, recovering from serious injuries one day after being hit by a car while walking his two dogs in the Paradise Valley neighborhood.
At about 4:30pm Monday afternoon, Gino Borgioli, who was elected to the school board in 2014, was in the crosswalk with his two Dalmatians crossing La Crosse Drive from Vineyard Boulevard when he was struck by a vehicle.
Borgioli, who remains at Regional Hospital in San Jose with a concussion and knee fracture as well as multiple facial and hand lacerations, said he lost consciousness after being hit and came to inside the ambulance.
“I don’t remember what happened to me. I got hit that hard. There were no skid marks. He didn’t brake or anything,” Borgioli said during a phone interview with the Times from his hospital bed, where he will remain for a few more days. “My face is completely ripped up. My kneecap is swollen three times what it was.”
One of Borgioli’s two dogs was also hit by the same car and injured. The family pet, named “Morty,” the older of the two, was taken to an emergency veterinarian hospital, where he received blood transfusions, according to Borgioli. The younger Dalmatian, named “Finn,” avoided any injury.
Morgan Hill Police Sgt. Troy Hoefling confirmed there was a report of an elderly male with a head injury and a dog that was also hit by a vehicle the afternoon of Feb. 26. The driver of the car remained at the scene until emergency personnel arrived, according to Hoefling.
Borgioli said he did notice a car getting ready to make a right-hand turn from La Jolla Drive, several hundred yards away, onto La Crosse Drive when he was already in the crosswalk on La Crosse. Borgioli, who lives in the area, walks his dogs every morning in the neighborhood. However, he had a dentist appointment Monday morning so he was “making it up to (the dogs)” by going for an afternoon walk.
“I saw this car start to make that right hand turn and I’m in the crosswalk already. I’m about 35-40 percent into the crosswalk,” Borgioli recalled. “This guy hammers it, pushes the pedal to the medal and ran right into me. I didn’t have a chance.”
