Two San Jose women died in separate accidents this Labor Day
holiday weekend on U.S. Highway 101 near San Martin.
Two San Jose women died in separate accidents this Labor Day holiday weekend on U.S. Highway 101 near San Martin.
Rosalia Carillo, 45, died at 3:35 Monday morning from a head-on collision with a driver going the wrong way on northbound 101, according to county coroner’s officials. Of the eight people in the two cars, the only one who didn’t sustain life-threatening injuries was Graciela Plascencia, 30, of Gilroy, who was arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol causing death. The collision took place south of the San Martin Avenue exit.
At 6:25 Saturday morning, Shonda Pritchard, 31, died from a rollover crash while driving her 8-year-old son to a Pop Warner football game in Gilroy. CHP officers reported Pritchard was driving “at a high rate of speed” and made an unsafe turning movement, losing control of her 1998 Chevrolet Tahoe near the CHP weigh station and the Masten Avenue exit. Her son received a broken hip and was flown by helicopter to San Jose Medical Center. Both were wearing seat belts, the CHP said.
Plascencia was driving home from a night of drinking in San Jose, according to the CHP. She had two passengers with her. Both were critically injured from the wreck, as were four people in the other car.
Plascencia told a CHP officer she didn’t remember exactly how she got on northbound 101 heading south.
Plascencia was going about 65 mph at the time of the wreck. Meanwhile, a Spanish-speaking family was traveling the correct way in two vehicles. The driver of the first vehicle saw Plascencia’s car coming, swerved and avoided it, but the second driver – 22-year-old Sergio Lua of East Palo Alto – wasn’t able to get out of the way. Carillo was a rear-seat passenger in the car Lua was driving and died from hitting her head on the post between the car’s front and back doors, Mayes said.
All four survivors from the car Lua was driving were in critical condition Monday afternoon at three different South Bay hospitals:
n driver Sergio Lua, 22, of East Palo Alto, had two broken legs and a collapsed lung and is under sedation at San Jose Medical Center.
n Alicia Carillo, 19, underwent at least seven hours of surgery for a ruptured spleen and liver at San Jose Medical Center.
n A 17-year-old male is at Stanford Hospital with a ruptured kidney, liver and spleen.
n A 16-year-old female is at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center with a broken arm and facial and leg injuries.
The two passengers in the car Plascencia was driving were also seriously injured:
n Veronica Prado, 28, of Gilroy, suffered a broken pelvis and leg and injuries to her head and elbow.
n Mary Yvonne Gayton, 32, of Gilroy, suffered a broken back, ruptured spleen and an abdominal tear.
n Plascencia had cuts to her face and shin and pain in her pelvis.
After CHP officers had secured the scene, a third driver crashed into Plascencia’s car. Xochito Calderon, 30, slowed her 2003 Ford Expedition to about 50 mph after seeing a fire engine pass by but did not see the wrecked car and hit it. She was taken to San Jose Medical Center for a spinal injury.
