By Cecily Barnes
Victoria Francone, 42, of Los Gatos suffered facial lacerations and bruised ribs after smashing into the side of a semi truck on Highway 9 near Austin Way at 7:33 a.m. Sept. 19. She was rushed to the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, while the driver of the truck, Salvador Orozco, 38, of Salinas, was unharmed and suffered only from fright.
Francone was driving her 1984 Mercedes toward Saratoga when, according to CHP Officer James Gomez, Orozco's semi, with a tractor/trailer attached, pulled in front of her to make a turn on Austin Way.
However, Lorenzo Jackson, who was driving behind Orozco's truck, claims Francone tried to zip past Orozco after he had already begun turning. "I think she was going a little too fast, playing beat the truck," Jackson said. "If she had been going a little faster, she would have cut that car in half."
The Mercedes ended up wedged beneath the truck's belly in the middle of Los Gatos-Saratoga Blvd. Its entire front end was entangled in a metal gridlock with the truck's underside.
"This definitely could have been a lot worse," Gomez said.
Traffic crawled by the incident as drivers stretched their necks to observe the scene. By 9 a.m., the Mercedes had been towed away, and all that remained was the semi, which was removed by 9:30, according to the CHP.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, September 25, 1996.
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