{"id":401309,"date":"2026-07-16T21:47:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/401309\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T21:47:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:47:25","slug":"san-jose-man-arrested-on-suspicion-of-causing-fiery-highway-87-collision-in-december-east-bay-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/401309\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose: Man arrested on suspicion of causing fiery Highway 87 collision in December \u2013 East Bay Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SAN JOSE \u2014 A man was arrested Monday after being found to be at fault for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2025\/12\/02\/san-jose-two-killed-in-four-vehicle-collision-tuesday-on-highway-87\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">December collision on Highway 87 that resulted in the deaths of an adult and an infant<\/a>, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p>Zachary Chernicky, a resident of San Jose, was taken into custody without incident, according to a news release from the California Highway Patrol San Jose.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly before 11 a.m. on Dec. 2, emergency responders reported to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2025\/12\/02\/san-jose-two-killed-in-four-vehicle-collision-tuesday-on-highway-87\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">four-vehicle collision on northbound Highway 87<\/a>. Three of the vehicles involved in the crash, a Lexus and two Teslas, caught fire.<\/p>\n<p>The two people who died were riding in the Lexus, authorities said. Passengers in other involved vehicles also suffered injuries.<\/p>\n<p>The victims were identified as Ivana Balistreri, a 29-year-old resident of San Jose, and Lilliana Martins, a one-year-old resident of San Jose, according to the Santa Clara County Coroner\u2019s Office. Lilliana was Balistreri\u2019s daughter, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/a-loving-tribute-to-ivana-and-lilliana\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">GoFundMe posted by the family<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Northbound Highway 87 was closed to drivers for several hours while the incident was under investigation, authorities added.<\/p>\n<p>After the collision, authorities carried out an investigation and determined that Chernicky, the driver of one of the Teslas, was at fault, they said. An arrest warrant was obtained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2014 A man was arrested Monday after being found to be at fault for a December&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,861,7,723,138,181,100,88,90,89,198,200,2442],"class_list":["post-401309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bay-area","tag-bay-area-crime","tag-california","tag-crime","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-south-bay","tag-south-bay-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}