Driver held after passenger killed when car hits light pole

SAN JOSE >> The man driving a car that violently crashed as it fled from Highway Patrol officers in San Jose early Wednesday, killing the passenger, has been arrested on charges of vehicular manslaughter, police said Friday.

Sean Bouvier, 34, of San Jose, was arrested on charges of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, and evading and causing injury or death, according to San Jose police Officer Gina Tepoorten

Bouvier is being held on $150,000 bail, and was scheduled for a court appearance Friday afternoon, however he is hospitalized at Valley Medical Center for treatment of injuries he sustained in the crash, according to county officials and records.

The Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office on Friday identified the passenger that was pronounced dead at the scene early Wednesday as Christopher Rodden, a 33-year-old San Jose resident.

Bouvier was headed south on Highway 87 a bit after 2 a.m. Wednesday when CHP officers saw the car weaving, and turned on their overhead lights to try and pull the car over for a suspected DUI traffic stop, Officer Ross Lee with the CHP said previously.

Instead, the car exited eastbound Curtner Avenue, and after making a left onto Curtner, ran multiple red lights while officers pursued, Lee said.

As CHP officers lost track of the car around Monterey Road and decided to end the pursuit, police say the car collided with a light pole, then through a chain-link fence and into a parked truck trailer, on the north side of Tully Road east of Monterey Road.

Bouvier was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said, and Rodden died at the scene.