While South Valley fire incidents were few over the Fourth of
July weekend, accidents were many. An unusual spate of accidents
cause one fatality, a 12-hour backup on Highway 101 and dozens of
motorists to be late to Hollister motorcycle rally and the
Independence Day parade in Morgan Hill.
While South Valley fire incidents were few over the Fourth of July weekend, accidents were many. An unusual spate of accidents cause one fatality, a 12-hour backup on Highway 101 and dozens of motorists to be late to Hollister motorcycle rally and the Independence Day parade in Morgan Hill.
A San Jose man riding a 1993 Harley-Davidson motorcycle was killed at 7 p.m. Sunday night when his tire slipped on a diesel fuel spill on the northbound San Martin Avenue offramp from Highway 101.
California Highway Patrol Officer Brad Voyles said the man, whose name was not released, lost control and was thrown from the vehicle.
Voyles said he did not know whether the man was returning from the July of Fourth motorcycle rally in Hollister. The accident did not appear to be alcohol-related, according to the initial report.
The Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office has not released the man’s name.
The lengthy backup started at 3:28 a.m. Sunday when a 1996 Freightliner, 3-axle tanker truck pulling a trailer, both filled with gasoline, overturned in the southbound lane of U.S. 101 just north of the Burnett Avenue overpass north of Morgan Hill.
Voyles said the truck was driven by Bhupinder Singh, a 34-year-old Modesto man who apparently made an unsafe turning movement and flipped the truck over onto the right shoulder. While engines from Santa Clara County Fire Department’s El Toro Station in Morgan Hill were first on the scene, the accident was later turned over to San Jose Fire Department, which brought in its hazardous cleanup crew. The accident was in San Jose city limits.
When the truck was removed at approximately 2:30 p.m. the southbound backup reached past the the Highway 85 onramp to 101, a distance of more than 12 miles. Traffic was slowed to a crawl for much of the time.
Until the Bailey Avenue overpass is finished there is no way to leave the freeway between Hwy 85/Bernal Road and Cochrane Road.
No citations were issued.
“Usually we don’t give citations in cases like these unless there is a witness,” Voyles said.
The driver will get enough grief from his employer and his insurance company, he said.
Voyles said that, as of 6 a.m. Monday, the CHP had responded to 20 accidents in Santa Clara County and five in San Benito County. Of those, five involved motorcycles, four were alcohol-related, one of which involved a motorcycle. During the same period CHP made 26 arrests in San Benito County, all but one for driving under the influence.
“The other was a pedestrian drunk in public, Voyles said.
Morgan Hill police were on alert during the weekend, looking for people shooting off fireworks, illegal inside the city limits. Sunday night just after 10 p.m. they found one, arresting a homeowner near East Main and Grand Prix avenues, between El Toro School and the Main Avenue freeway overpass.
Sgt. Rick Rodriguez said the department received 37 “municipal code violations,” during the 24-hour period surrounding July 4, most of which he presumed were fireworks-related.
Ed Schell, acting as assistant public information officer for South County Fire, based at the California Department of Forestry station on Monterey Road, said they felt fortunate that weekend was relatively quiet, largely because of the high humidity and low winds.
“The weekend was routine,” Schell said, mostly spent checking out people shooting off illegal fireworks.
“You can usually see them,” he said.
But, as Rodriguez said, you can’t always find them.
