Sunday, August 2, 2015

Downtown vibrancy update

A driver in the wee hours this Saturday morning was so drunk that he stopped his car in the middle of the freeway with no lights on. 10 News:
A suspected drunk driver was killed when he stopped his car on Interstate 5 in Encinitas Sunday Saturday.

The driver, a 27-year-old man, came to a stop without lights about 3:10 a.m. in the right lane of the I-5 north just south of Leucadia Boulevard, the California Highway Patrol said.

He opened his door and was immediately struck from behind by another vehicle traveling about 50 miles per hour, the CHP said.
Purely coincidentally, we're sure, he happened to be driving away from the downtown Encinitas bar district shortly after the bars closed.

UPDATE: [CHP Officer Chris] Parent said that, before the crash, several people had reported the Acura driver as possibly drunk.

UPDATE: The victim has been identified as Sergio Jimenez Solano of San Diego, and the coroner reports a possible tire problem but no mention of DUI.  Probably safe to let the Encinitas bars off the hook for this death, unlike Rachel Anne Morrison, Christina Donaghy and Tom Couberly, and Tara Murphy.

UPDATE: Union-Trib sticking with "suspected drunken driver." If he just had a tire problem, that doesn't explain the driving with no lights or the multiple DUI calls from other motorists. Maybe his bad drunken driving caused him to hit something that caused a tire problem?

61 comments:

  1. Illegal Actions by the City Council in the BIA lawsuit settlement!

    On July 8, 2015 three of the Council voted to settle with the BIA. Included in that settlement were special items for 6 density bonus developments. However, the closed session agenda didn't mention that the Council would be giving concessions to the 6 properties. The Brown Act requires that the description on the agenda must give enough information on what the Council will discussed in closed session. The Council denied the public knowledge of the Council's closed session action until after the fact.
    Also, the Council violated the Brown Act in giving the 6 properties land use entitlements that by state law must have a public hearing.

    The Council/BIA settlement should be invalid. The Council should take the steps to correct the Brown Act violations.
    Any letters or emails to the Council or city hall on the Brown Act violations should be in city hall by August 6.

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  2. Inevitable result comes home to roost. Wake the freak up council!!!! How many more deaths will it take to impress upon you what you have allowed to come to fruition by your lack of supervision over the bar owners that have degraded our downtown to such an ugly degree of 'Vibrancy'.

    Take our downtown back and restore some sort of decency. No more new bars and exercise control over those that have been allowed to fester to the degree that they have.

    Insist upon our lackluster sheriffs dept. to finally do their due diligence where it is most needed and control downtown to the point where a genuine risk is possible for any who partake of the offerings of PB north during the late night hours.

    No more bikini beach patrols, no more out of the way road checks where any driver is forewarned and can easily turn on some side street to get around them. No more ignoring your duty to the residents of downtown and the highlands. No more stupid attempts like the Kraken fiasco.

    Step up, both of you, Council and Sheriffs Department. Go where you know you are needed. It is to your detriment that you allow this to continue.

    As to the new code enforcement officer, just where are you when you are most needed? At home and sleeping comfortably, I am sure.

    Is the EHA still silently pulling the strings behind the scenes? Is this beyond anyones imagination that some force of such has continued to influence the lack of supervision down there?

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  3. Typical of this blog. No substantiation for "Purely coincidentally, we're sure, he happened to be driving away from the downtown Encinitas bar district shortly after the bars closed." Let's make shit up.

    1:23 PM You must have been busting inside holding that in as it has nothing to do with the original entry. The council didn't give anything away. They just allowed those six projects to proceed under the original conditions when they submitted their applications.

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  4. "The driver, a 27-year-old man, came to a stop without lights about 3:10 a.m. in the right lane of the I-5 north just south of Leucadia Boulevard"

    Let's see:

    2:00 AM Bars close
    2:20 AM Finally finds his car. Includes time to take a leak on a neighbor's yard.
    2:30 AM Finally is able to start car and drive to the I-5.

    Hmmm. We're at least a half-hour short here. Maybe he passed out in his car before starting it and didn't wake up until 3:00 AM. Hopefully, we'll find out if the driver did leave the Encinitas downtown area or was merely passing by as the 3:10 AM time of the accident would allow plenty of time for the driver to be coming from somewhere in San Diego.

    Tragic but luckily the woman who ran into his car is okay.

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  5. 1:56 PM
    You are wrong. Council gave $6000 credit each to two of the six density bonus developments. Most if not all of the six were not "in the pipeline" since their applications were still listed as incomplete on the city website. What the Council gave away will come later in a public hearing.
    The Council violated the Brown Act.

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  6. 1:56 City worker or Council member working on weekend. It must be exhausting, trying to CYA all the time.

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    1. No, what is exhausting is trying to correct the ignorance displayed here. And no, I'm not a city employee or council person.

      I don't know for certain but I suspect that the $6,000 credit for the two projects is because they resubmitted an application after the July 2014 council changes and had to pay additional fees. That's just a guess but if true then the $6,000 isn't a gift, it's a refund in the form of a credit.

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    2. M'okay...then Marco or developer.

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    3. 3:02 PM.

      Wrong again. Please describe what it's like being brain dead.

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  7. The dead man was coming from the Kraken.

    He was there to watch live music and get drunk.

    The city's decision to reverse course on the noise violations directly caused this death.

    I don't know if any of this is true, but I have the same amount of evidence as EU does for his theory, right?

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    1. Wherever he was, he was way over served.

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    2. 2:35 & 3:49
      The dead man was not intoxicated and he was coming from his girlfriend's house in San Diego. His car suddenly quit all by itself and in an urgent attempt to pull over and get out of harm's way, he only made it to the slow lane and bailed out of the car at the wrong time. But writing up a report that way doesn't make for good copy or promotion.

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    3. 4:42, Not necessarily. But we're all still waiting for the toxicology report you touted, aren't we?

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    4. That's a lot more plausible than 4:34's soccer coach theory.

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    5. 4:58, I am 4:57 and 4:34. But thanks for the concession anyway.

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    6. OK, I'm 4:53 and I made that up to counter this thread's bold assumptions. I hope the guy was drunk as authorities suspect.

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    7. 5:12,

      I was responding to 4:53's breakdown story. Your sober coach story still makes no sense.

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    8. EU, your drunk coach story makes sense, but that doesn't make it so. There are too many variables. I seem to recall you saying that a toxicological test would be forthcoming and prove he was DUI, so lest everyone forget, that still hasn't happened - as newsworthy as that would be. To me, the absence of a DUI charge in the police report suggests sobriety. Idiocy isn't limited to drunks.

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    9. 7:19,

      Sadly, the local media haven't followed up on the story. Ordinary DUIs just aren't newsworthy enough to get reporters' attention for follow-up stories.

      But if you are really interested, you could go to the Vista courthouse and ask for the records. I'm sure you'll find he has been or will be charged with DUI among other charges.

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    10. 7:19 Where did you get a police report? Are you one of those retired idiots who sits and listens to the police radio?

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  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    2. Yes, deleted. Please leave these people alone.

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    3. While you are at it, please tell them to leave this city alone with their wild accusations. It takes two to tango. Any more Brown Act crap should be deleted. Thank you. Stop playing favoritism for these idiots.

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    4. Not everyone who cites the Brown Act, correctly or incorrectly, is the same person.

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    5. How profound.

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    6. No, there are a lot of people who see a new thread titled "Downtown Vibrancy Update" about a freeway accident and immediately think "Illegal Actions by the City Council in the BIA lawsuit settlement!" and "... the Council violated the Brown Act ...".

      Anybody could put the two together.

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    7. 1:17 Bravo! I am happy that others are standing up to this nonsense that has nothing to do with this particular blog.. We know who they are, and every chance they get, EU let's them spew away, but we aren't allowed. Why have a blog in the first place? Many can do without it.

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    8. 11:58, true. But when they cite the brown act and reveal their presence at Closed Session too, the gap narrows.

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  9. In the last Vibrancy Update we were told a high speed chase was the result of a drunk from downtown. But no evidence was ever provided that the 43 year old was intoxicated and news reports neither said the suspect was under the influence. How soon eveyrone forgets previous downtown vibrancy embellishments.

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    1. You still running with the delusion that a 43-year-old soccer coach ran stop signs in Downtown Encinitas, fled police, and drove the wrong way on the freeway because he was stone cold sober?

      Good luck with that.

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    2. EU,

      Your story seems to be changing.

      Stick to your original story, which has two parts:

      (1) The coach was drunk and (2) he got drunk at Union.

      Both parts must be true for you to be right. Of course, so far you have offered no evidence that either is true.

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    3. Short answer: yes, still delusional.

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    4. once again, the point here is personal responsibility, and outside of that it's down to enforcement, just like anywhere else. Drunk driving has been around since the car met booze, and it isn't unique to Encinitas. I respect the blog, and the platform it provides, but this topic is getting redundant.

      -

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    5. So what you're saying is more Kook pics?

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  10. Ahhh sunday evening... lets go out and enjoy the fresh air and peaceful outdoors…

    Dam- I forgot I live in Encinitas and City Council allows the Police to not enforce the Vehicle Code and its sounds like a drag strip around here.

    Too focused in Vibrancy I guess...

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    1. Gone in 60 seconds - with a double shot at the Union.

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  11. the Soccer coach was not drunk !!!!!!!

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    1. He was just going for the goal! Scoreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

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  12. While not conclusive by any means, the fact that a CHP officer said the driver was reported drunk by other motorists makes me think he didn't come from downtown Encinitas but was driving up from the south on the I-5 and was swerving and having trouble negotiating traffic even though it must have been pretty light at that hour. That usually gets other drivers on their cell phones to the CHP. I know I've done it.

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    1. On the other hand, driving erratically and without lights on the 101 and Encinitas Boulevard toward the freeway could also generate 911 calls from other drivers.

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    2. Which is why I said it wasn't conclusive. But it's hard to tell if a driver is drunk unless you follow them for awhile which more often happens on the freeway where traffic is flowing in one direction and turns are gradual. It's especially apparent when a vehicle can't hold a lane but keeps swerving in and out or continues to rush up behind another vehicle not to mention no lights.

      It's all speculation but given the time and the fact that other motorists called in to report him, makes me think he wasn't coming from downtown bars. However, he could have gotten hammered at a party somewhere. Who knows.

      I guess living not far from the I-5 over the years and reading about accidents on it rarely are the drivers from Encinitas, either residents or visitors, so I didn't jump to the conclusion that the driver left a downtown bar. Your mileage may vary.

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    3. Well put, 1:47. But EU has an axe to grind, and that's OK, we get it.

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    4. When you are a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail.

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    5. Not really an axe, just a coincidence too perfect to let pass by.

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    6. The frequency of these "coincidences" seems to be increasing rapidly. This is becoming a different Encinitas than the one I moved in to.

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    7. What did you expect? An RSF covenent?

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    8. Nothing but crooks and thieves in RSF.

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    9. I agree with EU, its obvious the dude was wasted.

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    10. I've heard drunks get pulled over out on 101 every night since I moved to Leucadia 20 years ago. If you have a bar, you have drunk driving. Comes down to personal responsibility, and obviously enforcement.

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    11. 6:32, I'm not saying the guy wasn't drunk. But to conclude he was drunk and had gotten drunk at an Encinitas bar is possible, but pure speculation. A friend of mine lost consciousness and crashed into a house once. It was a diabetic reaction. I'd sooner think the guy was on drugs and that goes for the coach too - but neither of those are in stone. (no pun intended).

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  13. then it must be mostly attorneys, Realtors, and developers that live in RSF…..

    Haaa- Funny cause its true!!!

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    1. CEO's & CFO's, athletes, entrepreneurs, musicians, statesmen, equestrians, inventors, scholars, military - they all live in RSF too....

      - The Sculpin

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    2. Don't forget city managers.

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    3. They all hide there until they get caught for doing something illegal. We have seen it time and time again.

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    4. RSF is hurting. Real estate values are falling, and never recovered to 2007 highs. With big water restrictions, the whole character and draw of the place is starting to die. Conspicuous consumption is out of fashion. Many execs don't want to be perceived as living fat while rank and file workers struggle.

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    5. 2:17,

      I doubted your statement because the rich are doing much better than the middle class in this recovery, so I figured RSF would be booming with all that rich people money.

      But you're right: RSF hasn't caught up to the peak even though Encinitas and other prime areas are past peak bubble pricing.

      Check the data by ZIP code here:

      http://www.zillow.com/research/data/

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  14. "Probably safe to let the Encinitas bars off the hook for this death, unlike ..."

    Gee, and it was such a good story even if you made it up. At least we got to read a Brown Act rant and rip residents of RSF. However, I'll never get back all that time wasted trying to substantiate/refute your initial assertion.

    So instead of saying you were wrong and jumped to conclusions, you graciously let "the Encinitas bars off the hook". How noble.

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    1. There never would be sexual assaults at Moonlight Beach if tiny downtown didn't have 2 liquor stores. Oh wait. They're gone. Nevermind.

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