HWY17

[cranefly]

Bank robbers can be so effin' inconsiderate.

[Drunk Monk]

Person taken into custody amid South Bay search for bank robber, carjacker

By Kimberly Veklerov and Jenna Lyons Updated 5:44 pm, Friday, January 27, 2017

Police were searching Friday for the man behind a chaotic South Bay crime spree in which he robbed a bank, carjacked a woman, stole an unmarked police car and survived being fired upon by an officer near Highway 17, officials said.
Late Friday afternoon, television news footage showed a suspect being detained in San Jose, but it was not immediately clear if it was the suspect in the robbery spree.
The unidentified suspect eluded authorities since he allegedly robbed a Bank of America in Scotts Valley (Santa Cruz County) about 10 a.m. Thursday. He claimed to be armed with a gun when he walked into the bank, which happened to be about 100 yards from the Scotts Valley Police Department, said Lt. John Wilson.
“Who knows if he knew the area,” Wilson said. “Who knows if he knew we were here.”
Authorities circulated a photo of the suspect from a camera in the bank wearing a dark jacket, dark jeans and black mask.
The suspect — who never displayed a gun — made off with an undisclosed amount of cash before fleeing north in a white Chrysler stolen out of San Jose. All of the police force’s roughly 20 sworn officers began searching for him.
When an officer spotted the suspect on Granite Creek Road heading toward Highway 17, the officer tried to stop the suspect, which led to a pursuit toward San Jose, officials said. The suspect crashed on Highway 17 in Santa Clara County, sparking a day-long closure of the roadway.
At some point, a Scotts Valley officer fired a weapon in Santa Clara County during the search, said county sheriff’s Sgt. Glennon. The sheriff’s office is leading the officer-involved shooting investigation.
Investigators believe the suspect later stole an unmarked police car — a 2009 Silver Chevy Malibu — from outside a home. The car belongs to a law enforcement officer from an outside agency who isn’t connected to the case, said Glennon.
He also allegedly carjacked a woman for her minivan during the search on Thursday and entered a Redwood Estates home armed with a knife before fleeing the area, officials said.
“It has been a challenge, but we will continue to push on until we can bring him into custody,” Glennon told reporters at a Friday afternoon news conference. “We do consider him armed and dangerous.”
Jenna Lyons and Kimberly Veklerov are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com, kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno @KVeklerov

[Drunk Monk]

Update: 3 Arrested In Stolen Law Enforcement Car, Possibly Connected To Bank Robbery

Bay City News Service Updated 8:01 pm, Friday, January 27, 2017

Three people were taken into custody this afternoon in San Jose's  Northside neighborhood after police found them in an unmarked law enforcement  car stolen out of the Santa Cruz Mountains this morning, police said.
The 2009 silver Chevrolet Malibu was stolen from the Redwood  Estates area where Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies had been searching  for a man who robbed a Bank of America branch in Scotts Valley Thursday  morning.
The Malibu is not owned by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office  and was not involved in the search, sheriff's Sgt. Rich Glennon said at a  news conference this afternoon.
The car, which has lights in the front grill and possibly the  visor but did not contain a weapon or a police scanner, was assigned to a law  enforcement officer who lives in the area and was parked at that officer's  home when it was stolen.
Sheriff's officials and police have not determined whether any of  the suspects arrested in San Jose today were involved in the bank robbery,  but Glennon speculated that it "seems highly likely" that the bank robber  stole the car.
At 2:15 p.m. police began following the car on East Santa Clara  Street, east of Fourth Street in downtown San Jose, police Capt. Jason Dwyer  said this evening.
Officers did not start a high-speed pursuit in order to avoid  causing a safety issue in the downtown area and opted instead to confront the  occupants at North Seventh and East Mission streets.
Police arrested two of the suspects "relatively peacefully," but  the third ran into a heavily populated apartment complex, Dwyer said.
Over 50 police officers along with two helicopters responded to  surround the complex before the suspect fled east toward North 10th Street  into a construction zone and then into a nearby building.
Residents were told to shelter in place during the 45 minutes in  which the man evaded arrest, Dwyer said.
In the course of arresting the man, an officer deployed a Taser  stun gun, which was not effective, Dwyer said, but police were eventually  able to arrest him at North 10th and East Taylor streets.
"In the end, we did have to use a minimal amount of force on the  suspect, but it's better than a vehicle pursuit," Dwyer said. "It's better  than vehicle crashes that could have resulted if we had tried to stop the  car."
The bank at 4525 Scotts Valley Drive was robbed shortly before 10  a.m. on Thursday, according to Scotts Valley police Lt. John Wilson.
A Scotts Valley police officer shot at the man following a  10-minute pursuit on state Highway 17, but it was not clear whether he was  hit, according to Santa Clara County sheriff's officials.
Highway 17 was closed in both directions until after 8 p.m.  Thursday as deputies searched for the man, according to sheriff's officials.
Around 10 p.m. Thursday, a man believed to be the bank robber  broke into a house in the Redwood Estates area and carjacked a woman at  knifepoint for her minivan, Glennon said.
The woman called 911 immediately after he fled in the minivan, and  deputies set up spike strips on Alma Bridge Road.
When the spike strips disabled the minivan, the suspect fled on  foot in the area of Locust Drive and Aldercroft Heights Road, Glennon said.
Deputies and officers from the California Highway Patrol and the  Los Gatos Police Department searched the area with K-9s until around 1 a.m.,  and deputies maintained a saturation patrol through this morning, Glennon  said, until they learned that the Malibu had been stolen.

[cranefly]

...deputies maintained a saturation patrol through this morning...

Ensanguinated!

[Drunk Monk]

Scott's Valley slide again, closing both lanes this morning.  Fortunately I planned to stay at my mom's tonight as she has some errands for me.  I hope they clear it by tomorrow so I can go home.

[Drunk Monk]

taking the Hill again. 1 lane, 5 mph

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Make that 1 mph...

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0 mph... may have missed my window. Here comes the rain again.

[Drunk Monk]

Just an extra hour. Damn that slide was big.

[Drunk Monk]

Just read on sigalert that 2 workers were hit by a work truck at the Vine Hill slide. One was fatal.

[Drunk Monk]

Highway 17 mudslide worker killed by construction vehicle
Updated: 6:00 PM PST Feb 9, 2017

[/url]Phil Gomez  
Reporter

Amy Larson  
[url=http://www.ksbw.com/news-team/1c9850e0-d750-4ebb-bc78-f1de34dbe480]KSBW.com Digital Media Manager

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. —
Two Graniterock workers who were part of the crew attempting to clear a massive mudslide off Highway 17 in Scotts Valley were run over by a construction truck Thursday
KSBW Reporter Phil Gomez was at the mudslide reporting when the tragic accident happened at 12:10 p.m. 
Gomez said the two men were pinned under the truck's wheels, and one died minutes later. The killed worker was identified late Thursday afternoon as Robert Gill, 54, of Los Banos.
One Graniterock employee stood next to Gill's body crying, and in disbelief. 
"It's tremendously sad. It can affect all of us. These are people that are also putting their lives on the line every single day, to make the commute to Santa Cruz and San Jose easier," CHP Officer Trista Drake said.
The second injured worker, Stephen Whitmire of San Jose, was rushed to a hospital. He was conscious and talking to paramedics, Drake said.
Graniterock is based in Watsonville, and its workers were contracted by CalTrans for the week-long Highway 17 mudslide project. The driver had spent the morning hauling tons of rocks and mud from the mountainside, and was attempting to drive out of the construction site in reverse when his truck backed over Gill and Whitmire.

Graniterock
A Live Oak woman witnessed the men being run over. She began screaming and honking her horn, made a U-turn on Highway 17, and called out Phil Gomez's name because she recognized him from TV.
As soon as CHP officers, CalTrans workers, and Graniterock employees realized what just happened, they ran toward the victims and tried to save them. 
Emotions ran high at the gruesome scene. Whitmire was trapped under the truck for several tense minutes before he was freed and placed inside an ambulance.
Gomez said the construction truck driver, Daniel Harrington, 39, of Salinas, appeared very distraught. Harrington is employed by Watsonville-based Hildebrand Trucking.

The red truck on the right ran over the two workers.
Work on Highway 17 was immediately halted. CalTrans will not resume work until OSHA officials complete their investigation into what went wrong.
"We don't know exactly what happened, but are working with authorities to figure it out," Graniterock spokeswoman Shanna Crigger said.
CHP officers are continuing to allow motorists to pass through, with one lane open in each direction.
Crews have been attempting to clear the mudslide since Tuesday morning, when the slide landed on a passing pickup truck and flipped the pickup over during another storm.
The artery connecting Silicon Valley with Santa Cruz was shutdown Tuesday. A special excavation machine called "the spider" arrived Wednesday. The spider has special wheels that fold out on long, spider-like legs, which allow the earth-moving machine to climb steep mountainsides.
"This machinery allows us to access slopes that are basically inaccessible. Once he gets up there, it's a very slow methodical process so he can remove material, but also not cave in on himself or anyone," Drake said.
The dump truck that ran over the two workers was one of dozens working around-the-clock to haul tons of debris from the spider down from the mountain.
"This is the biggest slide I've seen" said CalTrans engineer Devin Porr said.
Another atmospheric river winter storm arrived moments after the accident. The Santa Cruz Mountains are forecast to get as much as four inches of rain from Thursday's storm.
Motorists attempting to drive over the hill during the afternoon rush hour should expect delays on Highway 17. Over on Soquel San Jose Road, another mudslide caused the mountain road to close in all directions near Olive Springs Road at 3 p.m. 

[Drunk Monk]

I bailed and telecommuted today at 5:30 am. I had to cancel a chiro appt, but I wasn't feeling the ride. Now 17 is closed in both directions. So happy to be home instead.

[Drunk Monk]

Stopped again.

Mondays...

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Sunrise in Scotts valley is better than sunset in Los Gatos except I'm going TO work. Fml

[Greg]

I was on the grand circuit trip on Saturday. I drove up 280 to 92 and went over to Half Moon Bay. Then I drove south on 1 to Pigeon Point for my morning photo shoot.

Now, I was going to try and sneak back on 84 despite the fact that I had seen the signs on 280 that 84 was closed because of a blockage. There were no such signs from the coast side. Which meant nothing as traffic stopped and detoured at Skyline. Ha! I said. Ha! I'll just take Skyline to Highway 9 and have a lovely drive along Skyline.

Okay. I had seen the report that Skyline was blocked, too. But surely, it didn't mean between me and Highway 9. Surely, it did. Sigh. Lots of broken roads in NorCal at the moment.

I eventually drove down to 280 along Page Mill rd There were a lot of foolish cyclists coming up.

[Drunk Monk]

HWY17 is a special kind of hell now.  The slide at Scott's Valley is yuge.  And tall.  They ain't clearing that for days.

I got on the road early before 6AM.  It took me an extra hour and a half to get to work.  

And my first task on this hellish Monday?  Unclogging the toilet.  

Okay, okay, I clogged it.  But still.  That's just one of the many feces of DM.  The DM BM.    

[Drunk Monk]

I'm glad I made this thread

Gives me something to do at the Dead stops

[Greg]

Are you following the Dead?