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Uploaded: Saturday, December 29, 2012, 11:20 AM
Updated: Tuesday, January 1, 2013, 9:41 PM
How did horses get on I-280?
Three horses struck and killed by car north of Alpine Road
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by Dave Boyce
Almanac Staff
Why and how four horses from Webb Ranch got onto Interstate 280 on Saturday, Dec. 29, is unclear. Three of the horses were struck and killed by a car on I-280 north of Alpine Road at around 4:50 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol.
The mature horses, trained for riding lessons, wandered from their paddock west of the freeway. There are at least two routes to the northbound lane of Interstate 280 north of Alpine Road.
Three of the horses were struck and killed by a 2006 Toyota Prius, according to an account by Tom Hubbard, Webb Ranch's corporate president. A second vehicle, a 2004 Mercedes Benz, overturned after hitting one of the horses that was down in the slow lane, according to California Highway Patrol Officer James Evans. The two drivers were taken to Stanford Hospital with minor injuries, the CHP said.
Driving the Prius was Richard Stein, 65, of Sacramento. The Mercedes was driven by Jean Gillon, 61, of Menlo Park, according to the CHP report.
The scene of the accident was about 520 feet north of the Alpine Road interchange, the CHP said. The fourth horse was found uninjured in the grass on the side of the road, he said.
Of the horses that died, two were thoroughbreds -- Maverick and Euro -- and the third was a quarter horse named Rowan, all geldings, Mr. Hubbard said. One horse was in his mid 20s and the other two in their late teens. The uninjured horse was Milo, a wild mustang repatriated from open range land, Mr. Hubbard said.
A Sig-alert, issued at 5:46 a.m., shut down northbound traffic until the alert was canceled just before 7 a.m., the CHP said.
San Mateo County animal control officials responded to the scene and the horses were towed off the road, the CHP said.
Escaping the paddock
The paddock for these four horses has two gates, one of which was found with an unfastened spring-clip on the chain that locks the gate, Mr. Hubbard said. The chain may have been left unsecured by someone tending the horses, he said, but an open gate would not commonly result in the horses wandering out to the freeway. Most escaped horses are found where there's fresh grass, he said. "When they get out in the night, they go to the closest spot that they can eat grass," Mr. Hubbard said.
Horses in a group like this one can develop a herd mentality, he noted. These horses had been at the ranch for at least a year and possibly as long as five years, Mr. Hubbard said. This is the first such accident since the ranch opened in 1922, he said.
It's not unheard of for a horse to open a secured paddock, Mr. Hubbard added. "Over time, they're standing just there (watching) and they can figure out how to unlock a gate."
Horses sleep at night but don't sleep the whole night through, Mr. Hubbard said.
As to the route they took to get from the paddock to the northbound lane, that is unclear and with no tracks to go by, will probably remain so, Mr. Hubbard said. Alpine Road is the obvious route, particularly with the automatic gate not functioning. A repair service had been called but repair was not expected until after the weekend, Mr. Hubbard said.
But the ranch also has a private road that runs alongside San Francisquito Creek and under I-280. If the horses took that route, they would have come out near the fruit stand on the east side of the freeway and could have easily found the on-ramp to the northbound lane.
"We don't know how it happened," Mr. Hubbard said. "Obviously, it could have been very, very tragic," he added, alluding to the light injuries to the drivers. "So that's our concern now, is for everybody's well being."
Bay City News Service contributed to this report.
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Posted by amazing , a resident of the Menlo Park: Downtown neighborhood, on Dec 29, 2012 at 12:55 pm Pretty amazing that a car flipped at highway speeds and no one was seriously hurt.
Are any charges pending against the horse owner?
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Posted by Freda, a resident of another community, on Dec 29, 2012 at 1:14 pm "Are any charges pending against the horse owner?"
May not be the owner's/owners' fault.
Take a look at the map... I don't want to cast aspersions without evidence, so I won't name the business, but it seems pretty obvious a guess that the horses were at a certain ranch and escaped. If so, the owners likely board them there and the responsibility belongs with the ranch.
as a guess....
Pretty terrible time for those drivers, though.
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Posted by Hmmm, a resident of another community, on Dec 29, 2012 at 2:03 pm Yes, the majority of horses in the area are boarded, not stabled on horse owner property. This is awful, & it could've been even worse.
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Posted by Local, a resident of the Portola Valley: other neighborhood, on Dec 29, 2012 at 7:05 pm For the person not casting aspersions...it isn't obvious to me which of the many ranch/boarding businesses on the north side of 280 the horses would have come from. The property on both sides belongs to Stanford U. PVEC is a bunch of sub-barns and there is at least one if not more additional operations farther up Ansel Lane. "Casting aspersions" seems like a very blaming activity. Could you imagine that someone intended their horses to be killed on the freeway?!?
Too bad it took the CHP an hour to cast the SIG alert - it seems they didn't react in time to prevent continuing tragedy?
That's an area with deer crossings, too, always be alert for large animals along that part of 280. Could be a cow someday...
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Posted by pv resident, a resident of the Portola Valley: Los Trancos Woods/Vista Verde neighborhood, on Dec 29, 2012 at 8:57 pm Just for the record they did not come from PVTC! So cast all the aspersions you like!
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Posted by Freda, a resident of another community, on Dec 30, 2012 at 9:45 am @local
I didn't "blame" anyone, nor did I "imagine" someone wished harm, note my use of the word "escape".
I was referring to @amazing that thought the owners would be liable. I still doubt that will be the case.
As for Stanford land, any idea how many tenants of Stanford are stables, trainers, etc... You'd need more than a handful of fingers to count.
As for my guess, after looking at the map, I'm glad I didn't say the name, the one I was guessing is on the south side of 280, with the long lease. I'm more familiar with the south side stables; I have no idea which is the most obvious (ie.. closest) choice on the north side.
My error stems from being a north peninsula gal, I still think of 280 as north/south!
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Posted by Menlo Voter, a resident of the Menlo Park: other neighborhood, on Dec 30, 2012 at 10:31 am The news reported this morning that they got loose from Webb Ranch. Someone thought they had latched a gate, but hadn't. Terrible.
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Posted by Local, a resident of the Portola Valley: other neighborhood, on Dec 30, 2012 at 10:54 am Mea culpa -- I was reacting defensively in protection of the ranch I rode at as a kid (WR) which is on the "south" side of 280. From what I know, all their horses are also on the opposite side of the creek from the 280 north on- ramp. So I didn't imagine that they'd get up to the north side of the freeway...but apparently they did. The SJ Mercury News reports that they wandered a mile from the corral where a gate was left loose. I'm feeling very bad for the ranch and all the kids who rode those horses in lessons. There are going to be a lot of sad kids as well as us adult horse lovers. Sorry for my reactivity in earlier post.
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Posted by Hmmm, a resident of another community, on Dec 30, 2012 at 1:18 pm I'm not feeling as bad for the ranch owners & kids who rode the horses as I'm feeling for the horses themselves & the poor people who hit them. It's really awful.
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Posted by Horse Person, a resident of another community, on Jan 2, 2013 at 2:13 pm Glad no human lives were lost and very sad for the loss of the horses. Surprised anyone would blame the horse owners. Hazards like deer (and, in the past, horses and cattle and even pedestrians and stalled cars) appear on 280. I try not to drive in the shoulder lane, especially at night, to give myself more room to maneuver should a deer bound into the roadway. Speed and over driving the reach of headlights are likely culprits, so please don't blame the poor horses and their owners. Many folks use 280 as a speedway! What are they going to do if they hit a deer - sue the deer?
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Posted by PV Resident, a resident of the Portola Valley: Brookside Park neighborhood, on Jan 4, 2013 at 4:17 pm I am a long time Woodside and Portola Valley Resident. For the past 15 years I have had reason to be on the 280 between the hours of 4:30-6:30am and I can tell you not many maintain the speed limit. It is as though drivers think that few drivers on the highway make it the Autobahn! They should treat it as though they are driving in icy conditions - SLOW DOWN. The speed limit is set as the safe speed under ideal conditions, which includes daylight, anything less than ideal calls for slower speeds. Perhaps if the CHP would spend more time in the early hours monitoring traffic we would have less gridlock that begins with wildlife (or relatively recently domesticated animals) being hit and killed.
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