Crime & Safety

Alleged Drunken Driver Hits Bicyclist, Pedestrian and Light Pole

The driver, Cainan Schierholtz, the brother of an S.F. Giants player, was arrested Sunday after causing destruction along Danville Boulevard and Railroad Avenue, injuring three people and damaging a light pole.

An unlicensed driver suspected of being under the influence was involved in five hit-and-run collisions Sunday morning, hitting a bicyclist, a pedestrian, a truck, a light pole and then an SUV, according to the Danville Police Department.

The driver, 23-year-old Cainan Schierholtz, never stopped his red Dodge pick-up truck at any of the collisions along Danville Boulevard and Railroad Avenue, according to the police department.

Schierholtz, a graduate of San Ramon Valley High, is the brother of San Francisco Giants right fielder Nate Schierholtz, who also graduated from San Ramon Valley High.

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He is an employee at Bridges restaurant in Danville.

His booking information lists his residence as Alamo, according to Contra Costa County Sheriff's Director of Public Affairs, Jimmy Lee.

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Witnesses followed Schierholtz to the intersection of Montair Drive and Macomber Road, where police arrested him on suspicion of drunken driving. The police department is not releasing information about the driver's blood alcohol content at this time.

Officers received reports of a dangerous driver along Danville Boulevard and Railroad Avenue at about 10 a.m. Sunday morning, according to the police department.

Upon investigation, officers learned that Schierholtz was traveling southbound on Danville Boulevard when he struck a bicyclist traveling southbound in the bike lane. He did not stop at the scene and continued southbound, where he hit a pedestrian standing in the bike lane.

He then swerved into the traffic lane and struck a Ford pick-up truck and continued onto southbound Railroad Avenue, where he traveled up onto the sidewalk and knocked a light pole to the ground on the corner of Love Lane and Railroad Avenue. He continued southbound on Railroad Avenue to Linda Mesa Avenue, where he rear-ended a Lexus SUV.

Jane Joyce, who lives on Montair Drive, said the victim in the Ford pick-up parked his truck across the roadway at Montair Drive and Macomber Road to block Schierholtz's exit.

By the time he turned around and was heading back in the victim's direction, several other people had converged in the area, Joyce said.

She said the car's airbag had deployed and  Schierholtz appeared to be pinned inside his car, but was somehow still driving.

When he saw he was blocked in, he stopped in front of the pickup truck, and the pickup's driver and two other men pulled him out of his car and held him until police arrived, Joyce said.

She said he appeared to be passive and extremely intoxicated.

"It's just a miracle that somebody else didn't get hurt or killed," Joyce said.

She said police arrived quickly and arrested Schierholtz.

The bicyclist was taken by ambulance to a hospital and treated for multiple abrasions, contusions and minor head cuts. He is now back home. The pedestrian and two occupants of the Lexus SUV sought their own medical treatment. The driver of the Ford truck was uninjured.

Schierholtz was booked on four counts of DUI causing bodily harm, three counts of hit and run causing personal injury, two counts of hit and run property damage and driving without a license. He is being held on $350,000 bail. As of Monday morning he was still being held at the Martinez Jail, according to Lee.

Schierholtz does not have any prior convictions in Contra Costa County according to court records.

The investigation is ongoing and anyone with further information can call lead traffic investigator, Danville Police Officer Julie Parish at (925) 314-3700.

Patch reporter D.M. Mills and Bay City News Service and contributed to this report.


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