Media: Officer Montiel will be at Sam's Chowder House parking lot. @SMCSheriff will allow you to enter closure. pic.twitter.com/XwweioS0Jv
— CHP RWC (@CHP_RedwoodCity) October 1, 2017
At least three people were killed in Bay Area traffic collisions this weekend, among them a pedestrian who was fatally struck by a California Highway Patrol officer and two drivers killed in a head-on crash on Interstate 880.
It was 4:15 a.m.Saturday morning when the first wreck occurred, on northbound 880 in Oakland, "just south of Broadway" ABC 7 reports.
According to KRON 4, a dark-colored sedan was seen "traveling the wrong way...without its headlights on."
Around five minutes later, that car "slammed head-on into another vehicle traveling in the right direction," KRON 4 reports.
Killed in the crash were the two drivers of the cars, identified by the Chron as 26-year-old Joel Hutchinson of Oakland and 23-year-old San Leandro resident Jennifer Huezo Ruiz. The CHP could not immediately say which victim drove which car (and was therefore responsible for the collision) "because of the wreckage at the scene."
There were no passengers in either car, the CHP says, and no other vehicles were involved in the crash. The investigation into the wreck is ongoing, police say, including a toxicology report to determine if drugs or alcohol played a part in the collision.
Then, at 8:24 p.m. Saturday night, a man leaving a wedding reception at Half Moon Bay's Sam’s Chowder House was fatally struck by a CHP officer as he crossed Highway 1, ABC 7 reports.
"Restaurant staff said the victim had just finished eating and was trying to leave when he was struck by the patrol car," CBS 5 reports. The victim has not been publicly identified, but was from Burlingame, they report.
According to ABC 7, the victim was attempting to cross Highway 1 between Capistrano Road and Coronado Street when he was struck. Redwood City CHP says via statement that "It appears the CHP vehicle was traveling northbound on SR-1 when it collided with a 74-year-old Filipino male pedestrian." He died at the scene.
CHP Officer Art Montiel tells NBC Bay Area "somehow [the CHP driver] collided with the pedestrian." The CHP officer behind the wheel during the collision has not been publicly identified.
"Our vehicles are equipped with cameras, so that’s something that we’re going to be looking at to see what happened," Montiel said.
According to patrons who spoke with NBC, when the restaurant's main parking lot fills up, guests often park across the street, then are left "dodging highway traffic on foot to get to their destination."
There are no streetlights in the area, they report, adding to the risks. "We're taking our lives into our own hands; it’s very hard to get across the street," one guest told NBC. "There's a constant line of traffic ever since we’ve arrived here."
"It’s kind of crazy with the traffic," another said. "It’s hard to cross streets, it’s hard to pull out, it’s hard to do anything. No parking anywhere."
Montiel tells NBC that "the officer as been temporarily pulled from patrol duty during the investigation, which is being handled by a Vallejo-based team." Anyone with information on the crash is asked to call CHP Officer Kurtis Waldschmidt at (650) 369-6261.
Man killed in crash by #CHP ofc. was leaving a wedding party at #SamsChowderHouse, says a mgr. there; says it was an accident @kron4news pic.twitter.com/avUoj9mi6t
— Philippe Djegal (@pdjegal) October 1, 2017