6 Hospitalized After Pursuit End in 101 Crash

GILROY, CA - At least six people were hospitalized Saturday morning after a vehicle lead police on a pursuit that ended with a collision on U.S. Highway 101 in Gilroy.

At 2:57 a.m., an officer near Chestnut and Eight streets noticed a vehicle speeding on Chestnut Street, according to police. The officer tried to catch up with the vehicle to make a traffic stop, however, the vehicle failed to yield and accelerated to avoid the officer. The vehicle’s driver then turned into a parking lot at Chestnut and 10th streets, where the vehicle crashed into a tree, police said.

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The driver was still able to continue fleeing in the vehicle and officers lost sight of the suspect vehicle near Alexander and Ninth streets. Moments later, officers learned the suspect vehicle crashed through a fence at the end of East Ninth Street and entered the southbound lanes of U.S. Highway 101. There, the suspect vehicle collided with three other vehicles, causing the suspect vehicle to come to rest against a center median on the highway, according to police.

Officers do not know if the suspects inside the suspect vehicle fled the scene on foot or if they were ejected form the vehicle during the collision. The two suspects however were quickly located in the highway’s northbound lanes, police said.

A witness told police one of the suspects may have been struck by a car on the highway however officers were unable to confirm that.

Police were also unable to confirm if there were more suspects inside the vehicle, other than the two that police located.

One of the two suspects is listed in critical condition and the other suspect is in serious but stable condition, according to police.

Four other people who were on the highway at the time and involved in the accident were hospitalized with minor to moderate injuries not considered life-threatening, police said.

As officers investigated the incident, both the northbound and southbound lanes of the highway were shut down for a large part of the morning.

Investigators are still trying to determine what led the suspect vehicle’s driver to flee from police. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Officer Rene Arbizu at (408) 846-0350.

--Bay City News