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A California man whose car overturned on the highway last week has been found alive, but unconscious, in a wooded area near an off-ramp, a week after his family last heard from him.
Authorities found Michael Sanchez Jr., a 25-year-old San Jose resident, lying in thick bushes off the side of Highway 101 in South San Jose on Tuesday. He was unresponsive, reported NBCBayArea.com, and was taken to San Jose Regional Medical Center, where he remains hospitalized, police said. Authorities aren't releasing any additional details about his condition, but his sister, Pricilla Sanchez, told KGO-TV that he was still unconscious Wednesday night.
"Right now, Michael's on life support," she told KGO.
While Pricilla waits to see if her brother will survive, she's also waiting for answers from the police on why they didn't find him sooner.
Read Michael Sanchez's story on NBCBayArea.com
Sanchez's family last heard from him around 1 a.m. Tuesday, May 8, according to San Jose police, but didn't become concerned about his wherabouts until two days later, when he failed to show up for a funeral service for a relative. After the service, the Sanchez family called San Jose police to report him missing.
Detectives had little information to go on, until Monday, when they learned California Highway Patrol had towed an overturned tan 1991 Ford Ranger pickup early on the day of the crash on Highway 101 in South San Jose, reported The San Jose Mercury News. Witnesses told officers they saw a man climb out of the pickup and leave the area, which is next to a county park.
Authorities from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office searched for him for about an hour, California Highway Patrol Lt. Les Bishop told The Mercury News, but they came up empty-handed.
"We were looking all over for this gentleman," said CHP Lt. Les Bishop. "We not only searched the immediate area and the brush, but we checked the shoulders on the freeway, the neighborhoods and the adjacent park."
Patrol officers say they ran the registration on the truck and the address tied to it was in Visalia, nearly 200 miles away in California's Central Valley --a cold lead, reported KGO.
But this week, after learning more details about Sanchez through his missing persons report, San Jose police returned to the crash site.
Detectives hiked into the wooded area and found Sanchez "in a location where he was not visible from the roadway or to passing motorists," according to San Jose police.
It's unclear what happened to Sanchez after he got out of his overturned truck, and at what point he lost consciousness. His sister told KGO that despite the vehicle registration confusion, she doesn't understand why California Highway Patrol stopped searching.
"If they did their search, they should have found my brother's body," Pricilla Sanchez said. "If I report it, my brother missing on that Thursday, they should have traced that truck. If CHP picked up his truck on the 8th, why didn't they report, 'I found a truck, there's a person missing.' You know, why wasn't I informed?"
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I bet the witness who supposedly saw him run off feels like a complete idiot right about now. Poor guy- hope he pulls through.
I wouldn't blame the witnesses. A possible scenario is that the driver suffered at least a major consussion in the crash, and was completely disoriented, but managed to get out of the vehicle. Was able to walk away from the wreck, but collapsed at some distance from the wrecked truck.
There's a good possibility he is also suffering from a depressed skull fracture.
The real dummies are the police who didn't call about the wrecked car that they found. But they were probably too busy setting up a speed trap.
Call who? When did they start putting next of kin in registrations? every abandoned truck should have a major follow up? get real.
R.Scalzo, this wasn't an abandoned truck it was an overturned truck. Considering it was involved in a serious accident, follow-up was warranted.
While we're throwing out theories, maybe he is drunk when he crashes, wants to disappear to avoid a DUI, then succumbs to his injuries in the bush.
Speculation aside, I hope dude comes back.
clearly this vehicle was not registered to him, and clearly when he was reported missing - the people who reported him didnt give any more details than "he drives a truck"...
I agree, an overturned truck implies an accident...but people walk away from these accidents, and the police were right to assume after searching the IMMEDIATE area that they had searched enough.
i'm going to bet that he was drunk, and when he survived the crash was disoriented but not so much that he didnt know well enough to get as far away from that truck as possible so that he couldnt be in trouble for being drunk at the time of the accident...
he probably fell asleep in the brush, due to a concussion and has been out since.
if he wakes up, hopefully they'll have as much frustration towards their family member who created this mess as they do towards the police who were never responsible for it.
sh!t happens...be thankful he's still alive.
Yes...it's always the police's fault. If the car wasn't in your brother's name and there was nothing in the car tying him to it, including his body, why should the cops have put the two together? You want them notifying you of every abandoned vehicle in the state just so you can rule out your brother driving it? Did you tell the police the make and model of your brother's vehicle or that he may be driving someone else's? And HOW should they have found your brother sooner when they didn't even know that someone WAS missing from that wreck. You yourself didn't even know he was gone for two days.
Shoulda, coulda, woulda. 20/20 in hindsight so stop throwing the blame around. For your brother's sake, I hope he gets better.
They are just looking to blame the CHP so they can get a PAYOUT.
Yeah you're right, putting two and two together is not exactly what cops are good at.
If it was your relative you'd be asking questions too. Why accuse them of looking for a payout? Just mean spirited in my opinion.
Some of you not understanding FloridaNative post, you might also consider how many times people run off from wrecks. Just think how many abandoned wrecked cars they deal with because they are stolen, drunk when wrecked, illegal, or uninsured. There could have been a host of reasons the man fled the scene. In all actuality, he could possibly be charged with leaving the scene of an accident. The police are not at fault here as far as I can see.
As for the young man injured, prayers for his recovery and for his family.
Florida, "overturned" is NOT "abandoned". And yes, if the registration is not in his name there would be no other way to put the two together other than by decriptions given if any. And who knows... maybe they tried contacting the person whose name the truck was registered under.
Houstonite - no, overturned does not = abandoned.
but this one overturned vehicle WAS abandoned.
whats your point?
Well, Florida Native, I'm not sure if you remember the little old lady that went over the bridge in Ft. Lauderdale and laid there for about a week before anyone found her too. That one however, was her AND THE CAR down there. It always seemed strange to me that no one saw that but I guess there was an excuse, more or less. This one though, since the car was in an obvious wreck and turned over, I would think it would behoove maybe a second look even though the first pass didn't bear fruit. They definitely do things differently in California though so your excuses are probably valid. It doesn't sound good for him though. A person that is in a wreck can get out of the wreck and walk a good distance but it doesn't mean he was drunk. He obviously had a concussion which means his brain was slammed hard. Liquor does not have to be part of the equation.
The guy has an accident and leaves to go hide out in some bushes? I wonder what was in that vehicle...
Head injuries can also do that, you know.
They will explain it all on the next episode of I Shouldn't Be Alive.
Guess getting a search dog too help was out of the question?
But they can sure get a dog when they have the slightest hint of drugs......Priorities?
Here is a hint. Drug dogs can't find bodies.
R. Scalzo - no, but rescue dogs can, and if he were unfortunately deceased, cadaver dogs could. Not blaming anyone for this. Just an unfortunate set of circumstances.
my dog can find anything. I just ask where is person or find blood. Any dog could most likely find some one in the bush. Just have to know what to watch for in the dog.
like it licking a passed out dudes face? lol
More than likely NO drivers license, NO insurance for sure since the vehicle wasn't in his name. Too bad for the family. I guess this shows why you should be linked to the vehicle you drive. So don't blame anyone but the guy driving ILLEGAL!!!
Didn't take long for someone to just assume he was illegal.
I didn't assume he was illegal but he was DRIVING illegal. Get a grip!!!
Still making a lot of assumptions, aren't you?
The only assumption I made was that the vehicle came from an area 200 mi away from the accident. If the owner was contacted about it getting towed because it was wrecked on the side of the road, they would have told CHP that it was A) Stolen B) Borrowed by a friend or C) Sold to a guy that never had it registered in his name. If it's the latter, it is illegal, plain and simple.
radagast - go back to school and learn how to read. colormepurple said nothing about the guy being illegal. He/she said he was driving illegally. There is a difference.
Hay man i live in Visalia 9 out of 10 car mishaps the occupants flee the seen. Most are walking wounded but still get away. this one was more wounded or was ejected and landed 60 feet away in the bush.
this is the reason a better search should have been done. Oh someone did say they saw him leave. should have been more observant to see where he went.
The witnesses just watched him crawl out of his overturned vehicle and limp away? I'm sorry but if I saw a truck overturn and was around long enough to watch the man crawl out, I feel I would have definitely gone to help. Even if I was just driving by when he was climbing out, I think I would have at least stopped.s for the cops - the guy may not have remained in one place. He may have made his way back to the scene after the police searched the area. Still, not a very thorough search.
20 people see an accident and all of them call 911 to report it but none of them stay around to be a witness. Don't bother to call unless you're willing to HELP. Go play on Faceboob because THAT is where you belong.
The sister believed that the cops didn't do their jobs. Why didn't she just use her ESP powers to locate her brother? Or the truck. If he hadn't crawled away to hide in the bushes, he would have gotten aid alot faster.
CHP out here are shoe shining idiots. Its all for show and rarely do they do their job. Fact is most retire on "medical" before regular retirement so they can draw higher benefits..
I was once ticketed for no seat belt by an officer that was parked on the side walk (stakeout behind a fence at a 4 way stop). He wrote the ticket and people had to walk in the road to get around, withing 100 feet of this 4 way. When he returned I asked how he felt about making people walk in the road risking their safety over a seat belt ticket, he just didn't get it.
Local Sheriffs typically show some common sense and accountability, CHP is just in it to make a buck. I see the retirement thing as fraud, coming from "public" servant who was supposed to be upholding the law. Get rid of them and CalTrans and we could budget the darn money...and Prison guards, another burden on society (privatize all three).
Click it or ticket.
we the people - so you decide to denigrate the CHP for doing their job and giving tickets to people who are driving without seat belts, which is against the law? Seems to me like they were correctly doing their job by giving you the ticket. Too bad you have sour grapes for being caught for doing something that you shouldn't be doing in the first place.
OMG. Blame. Blame. Blame. So why didn't this family get their lazy asses out there and hit the bushes if they cared about him so much? Clearly they didn't give a @!$%# about him.
Because they weren't told about the crash. I'm inclined to side with the police on this one, but that doesn't mean I have to side against the family. This is how I interpret the article:
1. Guy leaves from last contact with family. Perhaps crashes only minutes or hours later.
2. CHP gets report of crash that day, look for driver, don't find him, run plates. No more leads.
3. Two days later, family reports him missing. No mention in article of whether they knew what he was driving. At this moment, very likely SJPD didn't know or care that a tan Ranger overturned 2 days earlier.
4. SJPD puts disparate details together, realizes it was the missing guy who was in the rollover two days earlier, goes and looks (first time for them), more thoroughly than CHP did, and finds him.
Why didn't he just get up?
something wierd about this story....oh right..it happened in calif and the police are to blame again...$$$$$
This guy is lucky to be alive.
Hope he recovers.
Shock and injuries from an accident can make you do strange things, like leaving the scene. Poor man, hope he pulls through.
Yep, vehicle upside down, fuel dripping? I'd get as far as possible from it. Sounds like he was in shock.
I guess if he would have driven a truck registered under his own name the family could have been notified, and the guy be found sooner. Some illegal issues here? Who is to blame?
The cops searched for an hour. If the family wasn't satisfied with the cops' efforts why didn't they expand the search on their own, i.e. get out there and look for him yourself?
Because they didn't tell the family they were looking - for him specifically, or for anybody at all (why would they - there was no connection between them and the truck). The crash happened only hours, maybe only minutes, after the guy's last contact with his family. They wouldn't report him missing for 2 more days.
Did they confirm his medical insurance before taking him to the hospital? This situation makes me think:
The people that want their "freedom" to chose not to have medical coverage or live a healthy lifestyle, also want to be cared for when an accident happens to them and not pay for it. If it happens to someone else - they don't want to pay for THAT free loader. And, they also don't want escalating medical costs (which have to include indigent patients), OR have spiralling federal and state debt. Cognitive dissonance?
I count three bushes in that picture that are large enough to possibly contain a human body. Was this guy a little person?
If you watch the video, you can see quite a bit of brush, bushes, trees, etc..
He was just sleeping out of the sun, though earlier, looking for ants...
He was drunk and crashed and then tried to walk away before the cops got there. He'll probably get rich now because they didnt find him when he should be charged with a DUI
Once the vehicle was found, why didn't this man's family go out there to search for him?
This sister is bitter at the police, and makes it sound as if they should have dropped everyting else just to look for her brother. What did they do, if anything, to try to find their family member?
They may have gone and looked if they had known about the accident.
The cops searched. What are they supposed to turn over every friggin rock looking for some retard that overturned his truck... He was probably driving like a JERK to flip the truck anyway !!!!
I once had a bicycle accident. When I fell, I hit my head and broke my arm, but managed to get up, pull the bike out of the street and WALK TWO BLOCKS before collapsing unconscious. There is no telling why this man walked away from the wreck, but my guess is that he has a head injury and was reacting, rather than thinking clearly. I certainly hope he recovers fully. Now, why did the cops stop looking? They may have thought he was not injured and left the area.
In these many kinds of cases police routinely put forth minimal effort. Usually they first see if they can justify doing nothing. If there is an obvious victim or a dead body they know they have to do something. In this case they did just enough to say they looked. I am surprised they even did that. I am not singling out these particular agencies. They all do it. Best bet in these cases it to organize your own search. There was a case here in WA where a guy reported his wife missing. Weather was cold and streets iced. Police said maybe she just left. The guy said there was no reason to do that and she would never leave her children. Somebody finally reported seeing a vehicle down an embankment about a week later. She was alive but I think she lost some limbs. A good search of her likely routes from work would have probably found her. I can site numerous cases where pertinent law enforcement should have done something and instead came up with some justification to do nothing. Most of the time they get away with it but sometimes there are disastrous consequences. The DC sniper and 9/11 are perfect examples of this.