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The tally of bodies linked to murder suspect Efren Valdemoro grew to four after a ghastly discovery in a Vallejo home, police revealed Wednesday.

There on Upland Court, police found the bodies of two women: 63-year-old Segundina Allen and 60-year-old Marcaria Smart, both friendly with Valdemoro, a San Pablo resident.

But what rage prompted their deaths may remain forever undisclosed.

Police shot Valdemoro to death Tuesday night after a wild chase that ended at a fish counter in Richmond’s Pacific East Mall. He snatched up a cleaver and attacked a security guard, police said, prompting two California Highway Patrol officers to shoot.

The 38-year-old left the body of his strangled ex-girlfriend in

the parking lot.

“We were dealing with a very unstable individual,” CHP Sgt. Trent Cross said Wednesday. “He fled from the vehicle to the market, had a meat cleaver, and put the officers in a position where they were in fear for their lives.”

Vallejo police Lt. Abel Tenorio said Wednesday that his department has not concluded beyond doubt that Vademoro killed Smart and Allen. On Tuesday afternoon, Hercules police did name Valdemoro as their suspect in the beating death of 73-year-old Ricardo Sales, found Saturday in the bedroom of a Hercules home. Sales’s son and housemate, 35-year-old Frederick Sales, remains missing.

All the victims knew Valdemoro. Detectives remained mum Wednesday about the details of those relationships,

or a motive for the killings.

The strangled victim, 46-year-old Cindy Tran, owned and lived in the Hercules home on Crepe Myrtle Drive with the Saleses. She also owned the dark-colored Acura that Valdemoro used in the police chase.

Hercules police, investigating the Sales death, reported that he was last seen driving a pearl white Cadillac Escalade — Allen’s car. Police recovered the Escalade at a business park in Hercules on Wednesday.

Tuesday’s chase began about 7:40 p.m. in Pleasant Hill. CHP officers pursued the car onto Interstate 680 and then to Richmond, at speeds over 100 mph, before it exited at Central Avenue and drove into the mall parking lot.

During the chase, police sources say, witnesses saw Tran waving frantically through the window for help. She also made a phone call about 20 minutes before the end of the chase, pleading for help.

Sandra Le of Vallejo said she thinks she may have heard Tran, her friend and co-worker at a Vallejo hair and nail salon, being killed on the phone.

“The (salon) owner was upset because the police were here (asking about the Sales slaying) and may have upset the clients, so he called Jennie — we also called her Jennie — on her cell to tell her not to come in until the matter was resolved,” Le said.

“But he couldn’t understand her, so we called her from the salon phone and he handed it to me, and I could hear sirens, and Jenny screaming, ‘No! Stop! Honey, I love you, please, no!’

“And I could hear the car accelerating and he was yelling at her, I couldn’t understand what he was saying, and I yelled for someone to call 911, and then, suddenly, it was silent.”

Police sources said that Valdemoro managed to strangle Tran with a length of rope during the chase, before he ran into the mall.

A security guard saw Valdemoro running with officers on his tail and joined the chase. He tried to grab Valdemoro near the fish counter in the 99 Ranch Market, but the suspect threatened him with the cleaver.

Two CHP officers ordered him to drop his weapon, Cross said, but he didn’t. So they shot him.

While authorities investigated in Richmond, Vallejo police followed leads Tuesday night to the Upton Court home where Allen lived. Investigators had gone to the home in the morning and observed flies inside the home in the window. They returned around 5 p.m. and observed a strange odor; they talked to Allen’s husband, 72-year-old Charles Rittenhouse, and “froze” the house while seeking a search warrant. Authorities found the women’s bodies after executing the warrant about 10 p.m. They also found bomb-making materials.

Rittenhouse was taken into custody in connection with the explosives ingredients, including C-4 and dynamite, but not the deaths, Vallejo police said. Police also found a small amount of explosives at a South Vallejo storage unit that Valdemoro rented.

Vallejo police Detective Les Bottomley said it was unclear how the women died, but they had been dead for some time. Bottomley declined to comment on whether Rittenhouse was aware of the bodies’ at his home — one inside, one in the back yard — but said there was nothing to suggest that he had been away for any extended period.

Valdemoro was an acquaintance of one of the women and stayed at the Vallejo home “off and on,” and may have been involved in disturbances there that prompted police calls, authorities said.

Domestic disturbances also were seen in the Hercules investigation. Officers visited the house on the 1000 block of Crepe Myrtle Drive on Aug. 22 to break up a fight between Valdemoro and both Saleses.

A neighbor said that a group of four or five mostly older adults had moved into the house about a month and a half ago. He said he had not heard sounds or other evidence of any disturbances at the house since then.

“It was a surprise to us,” the neighbor said of the tragic turn of events. “We came out and the police were here, and we were wondering what was going on.”

On Saturday, a housemate went to the Police Department to report both Saleses missing. Officers found the bedroom door of Ricardo Sales locked. Upon entering, they found signs of a struggle and Sales’s badly beaten body.

Detectives found no sign of Frederick Sales. Other neighbors said they heard loud music at the house Friday night, when police believe the elder Sales died.

The younger Sales, still missing Wednesday evening, was a nursing assistant at Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo. Co-workers and patients there feared for him.

“He got hired the same day I did, three months ago,” nursing assistant Mary Kay Burnett said. “He’s very friendly, very talkative.”

Patient Daryl Myers, a paraplegic, saw Sales nearly every day the past couple of months.

“He was looking forward, nothing but up. He was going to make something of his life,” Myers said. “He was never mad, depressed or quiet on certain days. You would always see him smile. You would always see his front teeth.

“I am devastated,” Myers said.

Staff writer Tom Lochner and Rachel Raskin-Zrihen of the Vallejo Times-Herald contributed to this article. Contact Karl Fischer at 510-262-2728. Follow him at Twitter.com/kfischer510.

MARTINEZ — An Antioch man was arraigned Tuesday on felony child abuse charges in the beating of his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son, who suffered a brain injury and has lost the function of one arm, a prosecutor said.

“He is suffering at least partial, maybe total paralysis in one arm,” Contra Costa County deputy district attorney Dara Cashman said. “Whether that will be permanent or not, I don’t know at this time.”

Aaron Handy, 28, was charged Monday with one count of felony willful injury to a child and two charge enhancements: inflicting great bodily injury on a child younger than 5 and inflicting great bodily injury resulting in brain injury, paralysis or coma.

Handy was ordered to return to court Sept. 16 to enter a plea. He faces as much as 17 years in prison if convicted; he remains behind bars in lieu of $240,000 bail, Cashman said.

The child’s mother came home to the residence she shares with Handy on Peppertree Way on Aug. 20 and found her son unconscious. Antioch police said that Handy, who had been watching the boy, tried to persuade her not to call an ambulance. When she did, he fled, officers said.

The boy was hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury, and doctors put him into a medically induced coma while surgeons removed a portion of his skull to alleviate swelling. The boy, who remains hospitalized, has been unable to describe how he was injured to police.

Handy was arrested Aug. 25 in Stockton. His

ex-wife told investigators that she has banned Handy from seeing their two children.

Police said that Handy told them that he became angry at the 4-year-old and pushed him forcefully. Cashman said that statement is inconsistent with the boy’s injuries, but she declined to go into further detail.

For 19 years, Alameda County has had two transportation agencies to fund and oversee transportation projects, each with a similar mission, a board, a staff and an office in the same Oakland building.

The two agencies now are merging in a move that leaders of Alameda County and its 14 cities say will save money and provide the county a unified political voice as it seeks seeking funding to improve mobility for those in cars, buses and trains, on bicycles and on foot.

The new agency is called the Alameda County Transporation Commission.

“We can streamline operations, save money, and give Alameda County a unified voice on transportation matters,” said Union City Mayor Mark Green, chairman of the new commission’s 22-member board. “That’s especially important when we go to Washington or Sacramento looking for money to improve our transportation system.”

Green said the merger better prepares Alameda County to deal with the challenges of maintaining and improving roads, highways and public transit during a sour economy, tight state funds and political pressure to reduce auto use and limit greenhouse gases.

The Alameda County Transportation Commission was officially born June 24 after nearly two years of study and a series of votes by the county and its cities.

The merger, which will happen in stages over the next 18 months, will blend two agencies with different funding sources: the Alameda County Transportation Improvement

Authority and the Alameda County Congestion Management Agencies.

The improvement authority has overseen about $100 million annually collected from the county’s half-cent sales tax measure to help local public transit operators and fund a variety of voter-approved projects. Those projects include soon-to-open toll lane on Interstate 680 between Fremont and Pleasanton and BART’s planned rail extension to the Oakland International Airport.

Alameda County voters approved the sales tax in 1986 and renewed it in 2000.

Alameda County leaders created the congestion management agency in 1991 in response to a state law that requires counties to set up organizations to oversee transportation planning and efforts to fight traffic jams. In this last decade, the congestion agency has been able to raise about $100 million a year largely because of state and federal funds allocated to the county.

Merging the two agencies is expected to save $500,000 to $900,000 a year, mainly by streamlining operations, and merging and trimming jobs, according consultant studies for the two agencies. The new agency’s mission is similar to the Contra Costa County Transportation Authority, which oversees both county sales tax spending and congestion planning.

The top executives of the two old agencies — Dennis Fay of the congestion agency and Christine Monsen of the improvement authority — say they will retire from their posts.

On Wednesday, Art Dao, a deputy director of the improvement authority, starts as boss of the new agency.

“One of the challenges will be creating and building an organization from two very different cultures and staffs,” Dao said.

Fay said Alameda County political leaders decided two decades ago to have two separate agencies in part because the sales tax agency had so much work to do in delivering voter-approved projects.

The congestion agency also had a lot to do aggressively seeking out state and federal funds to improve transportation.

“I think the merger will benefit the public because it will bring out the best of the two agencies into one,” Fay said.

Contact Denis Cuff at 925-943-8267. Follow him at Twitter.com/deniscuff.

MT. DIABLO STATE PARK — Most people don’t celebrate their 47th birthday — or any birthday, for that matter — riding to the top of Mount Diablo on a unicycle.

But, as friends and even his wife admit, Steve Meagher is not like most people.

“Steve’s always been a little on the nut side,” said Ralph Gowen, one of about two dozen friends and family waiting for Meagher at the summit Sunday. “This is very typical.”

Meagher’s ride, from the Athenian School in Danville to the observation deck at the mountain’s peak, took him just over two hours.

Twelve miles, 3,500 vertical feet — and one wheel.

“It’s a long way,” Meagher said at the top. “I was just nervous that I wasn’t going to make it.”

The Orinda resident and native bought his unicycle three years ago, when his wife, April, left him alone with the credit card and told him to buy himself a toy for his birthday.

“It was just so different,” Steve Meagher said. “It was just so goofy that I had to do it.” He took one lesson shortly afterward from Danville resident Chris Hopkins, who had recently rode up Mount Diablo for charity.

But it wasn’t until last December when Meagher started talking about making the trip himself. For the past few months, he’s been practicing, first in the backyard, then the driveway, then the local park and eventually at Mount Diablo.

“Steve is one of those people who if he sets his mind to do something he’s going to do it,”

April Meagher said. “He certainly makes life fun.”

And that was the entire purpose of Steve’s Sunday ride, which he called a “fun-raiser, no ‘d.’ “

“The best thing is when people are coming up or down and they see you and they just (get) a big smile, it’s like, ‘How the hell did you do that?’” he said. “That’s really fun. That part’s really cool.”

Other than leaning forward for balance, Steve Meagher said, riding a unicycle up a hill is not much different from riding on flat ground. The challenge, he said, is that unlike a bicycle, you must keep pedaling to keep moving and avoid falling off.

Meagher, a physical therapist, is no stranger to athletic challenges. He’s run about 20 marathons, completed four triathlons and participated in 15 Alcatraz swims. He’s a member of the Danville-based running group Forward Motion, and many of the group’s members ran or biked up the mountain Sunday to lend their support and encouragement.

Sunday’s trip was also a family effort. April drove their two daughters, Bridget, 5, and Bailey, 3, to Mount Diablo when Steve practiced so they can have a picnic lunch together. And when Steve first began riding, Bridget would use chalk to mark how far he went on each try.

“Come on, Dad, you can do it!” Bridget called out to her father as he climbed the last few feet Sunday. Once at the top, Steve lifted Bailey high in the air in celebration.

“Our daughters have watched him go from start to finish with this process,” April Meagher said. “They watched him (go from) not knowing how to do this at all to being able to do it, and I think that’s a huge life lesson for a child to see.”

Sitting in their Orinda backyard last week before the ride, April said her husband has always been a little quirky.

“I think I need attention,” Steve replied. “It’s fun to do things that most people don’t do and just try something different. Because you kind of get in a rut so if you try something different, it’s kind of fun. And it’s nothing that anybody else can’t do, it’s just I’m doing it.”

Contact Jonathan Morales at 925-943-8048.

UNION CITY — The suspect in the shooting of a veteran Fremont police officer has been arrested in a Southern California border town, one exit north of Mexico, as he tried to flee the country, San Diego police said.

Investigators received information that Andrew Barrientos was headed to Mexico when a sergeant spotted him with another man driving in a vehicle about 3 p.m. Saturday in the 5700 block of Camiones Way, a street that runs parallel to the border, said San Diego police Lt. Andra Brown. The officer pulled over the car and held the men at gunpoint until Barrientos was arrested without incident. He was found with a 9 mm handgun, police said.

No information about the other man was immediately available.

Earlier in the day, police identified the critically injured officer as Todd Young, a 16-year veteran of the Fremont and Newark police departments. The 39-year-old father of two was shot twice in the pelvic area and rushed to a hospital, where he underwent surgery. He remained in critical but stable condition Saturday afternoon, police said.

As the Fremont resident was taken into custody near San Ysidro, feet from the Mexican border checkpoint, East Bay police agencies knocked down doors and served search warrants in Union City, searching for Barrientos.

Investigators had shut down Eighth and Ninth streets between C and E streets in Union City this afternoon, about four miles from Tennyson Park in Hayward, where

police had recovered the stolen car Barrientos, 20, is accused of using to escape the scene of the shooting.

Investigators searched several homes, including one in the 33400 block of Eighth Street.

Ines Mercado, who lives at the home with her parents and siblings, said she thought police were looking for a man who lived in the other half of the duplex.

“They just told us, ‘You have to get out,’” Mercado said. “They asked, ‘Do you know him?’”

As police scoured the neighborhood, Fremont Mayor Robert Wasserman released a statement Saturday, saying, “The citizens of Fremont and the City Council wish to extend our thoughts and prayers for Officer Todd Young and his family.

“The council wishes to extend our most sincere appreciation for the doctors and staff of Highland Hospital for the outstanding medical care that has been extended to Officer Young.”

The shooting occurred Friday after two Fremont police officers tried to serve a search warrant on Barrientos. They found him outside a bungalow in the 2000 block of Auseon Avenue near Bancroft Avenue, Oakland police spokesman Jeff Thomason said.

Barrientos fled on foot, firing a gun at both officers and hitting one of them twice, Thomason said. After shooting at and failing to carjack a driver, Barrientos then fled on foot to a liquor store in the 8600 block of Bancroft Avenue, where he carjacked a 1999 green Mazda, Thomason said.

“On behalf of Todd’s family, and the Fremont Police Department, we would like to thank everyone for their continued support,” Fremont police spokesman Bill Veteran said in a statement.

During his lengthy surgery, Young required 60 units of blood, Fremont police said. He is expected to need more procedures in the next few days and police are asking for donations.

The Mazda suspected to be the getaway car turned up parked near Tennyson Park in Hayward about 2 a.m. Saturday, Thomason said. He declined to state the condition of the car or whether Barrientos has family in the area.

Thomason issued a stern warning to anyone who may have helped Barrientos hide or escape.

At the time of the shooting, Barrientos was on probation for resisting police and was wanted on domestic violence charges.

“He was wanted for pointing a firearm at the mother of his child on Aug. 12,” Thomason said.

Oakland investigators are handling the shooting investigation and led the search for Barrientos, Thomason said.

“The fact he could do this, shoot at a police officer, shoot at innocent people, speaks to his state of mind right now,” Thomason said.

Contact Sean Maher at smaher@bayareanewsgroup.com or 510-208-6430. Staff writer Ben Aguirre contributed to this story.

donate blood
Injured Officer Todd Young may need blood for future surgeries and police are asking for donations. Anyone wishing to donate blood in Young’s name is asked to call the American Red Cross at 800-448-3543 or their local blood bank.

Q So the state is thinking of reducing fines for California stops — drivers who roll through red lights on right turns. I say fines should be increased. I see more drivers out there doing this, and have almost been in several accidents because of this. Decreasing fines would be telling drivers it’s OK to blow through a red light.

Al Parks

Salinas

A Those are the overwhelming sentiments I’ve heard to legislation introduced by Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, that would lower the fine from around $450 to $219. The bill is before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Q This may seem naive, but if the intent of the fine for traffic violations is to stop drivers from breaking the law and for safety, then why reduce the fine for the California stop? Apparently many of those complaining about the amount of the fine are breaking the law, but just don’t want to pay so much when caught. I have nearly been hit while walking numerous times and only have remained safe by making sure that the driver recognizes my existence and motions me forward. If pedestrians were as careless as drivers, we would have many injured or dead.

K.A.

A When I’m out walking the Roadshow retrievers, my big fear is a driver turning right on red. So many don’t look for pedestrians and don’t stop.

Q People rolling

through the red light as if it were green is why I quit riding a motorcycle. I never knew if they could see me or if they would actually stop. I don’t have any sympathy for people who do this. “… Lowering this fine is irrational. “… So more scofflaws are demanding lenient treatment for their blatant crime of failing to make a full stop before turning right on red. Most of the time these drivers only look for cars coming from the left and as soon as it’s clear or perceived by them as clear, they jump on the gas and turn the wheel. I say to our Legislature: Scrap any bill to lessen the punishment for this infraction. “… Is the punishment for failing to make a full stop before turning right at a stop sign equally severe?

John Thompson, Forrest West, Perry Castagnetto, Khoi Bui and more

A No, the fine for rolling through a stop sign on a right turn is around $219. In 1997, legislation inadvertently amended the vehicle code to apply to right turns on red-light violations, making the fine the same as running straight through an intersection on a red light.

Q After almost being run over walking my dog by a driver who rolled through a red light on a right turn, I have to throw my two cents in. I live off Santa Teresa Boulevard in San Jose, or as many of us refer to it — Santa Teresa Raceway. At least once a week some moron will not stop for the red and make a right. One day I was two steps into the crosswalk when I see a car coming and I know she isn’t going to stop. I had to jump back onto the curb and yank my 17-pound mix breed Pekingese Mia by the leash to get her out of the way. People complain that running a red to make a right is not the same as just running a red and should be treated different. I agree. The fine should be double, not half. By the way, the car that almost ran us over was a Prius.

Thomas Bougher

San Jose

A There is one embarrassing member in every Prius family. But we need to hear from another side.

Q I got a rolling right-red light ticket, and went to the San Mateo County courthouse Monday and counted 11 people there for the same issue. The judge was offering $25 off fines to persuade people to plead guilty.

Cory Narog

Belmont

A Cory was traveling near Whipple Avenue in Redwood City when he heard a siren and rolled through a red light to get out of the way. That’s when the camera flashed and a few days later a $446 ticket arrived in the mail. San Mateo County courts are so jammed with cases like this that his court date won’t take place until March. This was his first ticket in 37 years. Said Cory: “Had there been a police officer there, I’m sure he would have understood and not ticketed me. I am so disappointed in this system.”

Q I was one of those unfortunate ones caught on camera in Fremont. My fine was $476, which I find ludicrous. Are we having to pay for the budget our leaders cannot balance? What what can I do? What would you do?

Noel Garza

A If there were unusual circumstances, I might go to court. If not, I’d pay the fine and go to traffic school to keep it off my record.

Q A couple of weeks ago I was driving down Ralston Avenue toward El Camino Real with no traffic when I slowed but didn’t stop on a right turn. I said to myself: Why did I do that? I didn’t think any more of it until Tuesday, when I got a citation in the mail for $446. I think it’s pretty rotten to charge people so much. The ticket said I was going 15 mph. Is that fast? I went to the hall of justice and a person there said I could fight it, but I’m too old for that, so I just paid the $446.

Anna Kordick

San Mateo

A Anna is 80. This was her first ticket since she was 21 — for rolling through a stop sign.

Coming Monday: A British man says Americans are terrific drivers. Contact Gary Richards at mrroadshow@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5335. The fax number is 408-288-8060.

LIVERMORE — Police arrested a Livermore girl’s soccer coach Thursday afternoon on suspicion of possessing and distributing child pornography.

Dozens of graphic child pornography images were found on David Garrison’s computer during a search of his home Thursday in the 1600 block of Altamar Way, said Livermore Police Sgt. Paul Mayer. The serving of a search warrant was the culmination of a three-month investigation.

None of the photos, which appeared to have been downloaded and traded on the Internet, appear to depict local children, Mayer said. However, he said, invesetigators are still examining them.

Garrison, 45, was taken to Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, where he is being held in lieu of $40,000 bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in a Pleasanton courtroom.

Garrison has coached soccer for 8-year-old girls since the spring, said Brent Koch, president of the Livermore Youth Soccer League. Koch said he learned of the arrest around 2 p.m. Thursday.

Garrison has been removed from a coaching position. The league is notifying parents and will meet with parents about the next steps for the team, Koch said.

All coaches and staff go through a background check done through the state Department of Justice, which Garrison passed, Koch said.

“This is obviously a complete shock to all of us,” he said.

Mayer asks anyone with information to call him at 925-371-4733.

Contact Sophia Kazmi at

925-847-2122. Follow her at Twitter.com/sophiakazmi.

EMERYVILLE — Dozens of residents on the “safe” side of the Emeryville train tracks now fear an invasion from the other side: that of big box retail.

Swedish furniture giant IKEA submitted in June an application to the city’s Planning Commission seeking permission to develop a 60,000-square-foot warehouse in the long-empty half of a building partly occupied by Level (3) Communications at 5000 Hollis St., at the corner of 53rd Street.

The warehouse would store large items that customers could purchase based on floor models in IKEA’s Shellmound Street location a few blocks away. Storing the large items on Hollis Street would free up space at the Shellmound Street store and let customers drive to the warehouse, present a receipt and get their beds and refrigerators loaded onto their own trucks.

More than 40 parking spaces at the site would be eliminated in the development, which would operate 10 a.m.-9 p.m. seven days a week and receive a shipment between 7-9:30 a.m. daily.

Unhappy with this plan are dozens of nearby residents, who have been posting fliers, writing letters and making phone calls to convince the city’s planning commissioners to turn down IKEA’s request.

Residents say the area — which is zoned for residences and office use — would be seriously disrupted by an onslaught of traffic and noise, and that their property values, having already taken a beating in the real estate crash, would never fully recover in a

neighborhood with that kind of crowding.

“Am I the only one who actually shops at IKEA? It’s this constant ambient noise of trucks and cars and talking and carts and loading continually,” said Lynn Turner, who owns a home in nearby Emery Bay Village. “If you’ve ever been around the loading bay at IKEA, I call it chaos. People, babies crying, people trying to put stuff on top of their cars. I shop there, but I never would have purchased my unit if IKEA was next door. Our property values will never climb to where they were before.”

Neighbor Joan Bossart agreed, saying, “The city talks about families and residences; they need to live up to their zoning regulations in the general plan, which is designed to support that. You can’t combine big box retail and family neighborhoods. It really doesn’t work.”

After a July meeting with the Emery Bay Homeowners Association, IKEA changed its plans, reducing proposed signage and adding an 8-foot sound wall adjacent to where the trucks would load.

Planning staff have suggested eight conditions to the commissioners’ approving the project, including IKEA hiring a public liaison to handle complaints and addressing some traffic concerns.

None of the city’s planning commissioners or IKEA’s spokespeople returned phone calls and e-mails seeking comment Wednesday.

The Planning Commission’s meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. today in the City Council chamber at City Hall, 1333 Park Ave. The meeting will include a chance for public comment.

Contact Sean Maher at 510-208-6430.

OAKLAND — The first day of a free alternative fuel giveaway started Tuesday with a trickle of motorists lured in by curiosity and the promise of a bargain: Five free gallons of biodiesel or an ethanol-based blend called Flex Fuel.

“It’s an incentive for drivers to stop,” said Emily Shellabarger, a spokeswoman for Propel, the Sacramento-based fuel company that opened a self-serve fueling dock at a Chevron station at 350 Grand Avenue.

The opening came amid the BP oil-drilling disaster and on the second Spare the Air day in the Bay Area.

“People are excited to have another choice,” Shellabarger said.

Propel’s Flex Fuel is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent petroleum.

The biodiesel is almost all petroleum-based, with 5 percent coming from biofuels.

“Our pumps are a little bit different looking and it’s a bit confusing, but we’re an independent company,” Shellabarger told a gray-haired woman who pulled up in a Chrysler Sebring.

The Sebring was not equipped for Flex Fuel although there are about a million cars on the road that are, including the 2009 Hummer H2.

Propel provides a list of Flex Fuel-ready vehicles at the pump. Motorists can also tell by the manufacturer’s yellow gas cap.

They can check the website www.propelfuels.com/driveE85.

The regular per-gallon price for the Flex Fuel is $2.49; the biodiesel is $3.19 and comes from a supplier

called Western States Petroleum in San Jose. Mileage is comparable, Shellabarger said. Customers pay at the Propel pump with a credit or debit card, or an employee fleet card.

The pace of cars at the pump quickened by noon: A shiny Chevrolet Suburban, a 1982 GMC Sierra Classic pickup, a new model Volkswagen Golf.

But a woman returning a Zipcar was unable to take advantage of the deal because the Toyota Matrix she rented was not equipped for alternative fuels. No Hondas are Flex Fuel equipped.

The pump is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The promotion ends Thursday.

The Oakland location is Propel’s third in the East Bay. Other sites include Fremont and San Jose, where a second location is slated to open soon.

A Berkeley location also is in the works.

Shellabarger said Propel would like to use non-corn-based ethanol, as well as less petroleum in the diesel blend.

But 5 percent is the maximum amount in a blend that California allows to be stored underground at filling stations, she said. The other roadblock, she added, comes from vehicle manufacturers that recommend no more than a 5 percent blend and will not honor warranties otherwise.

“We’re working with what we have,” she said “It’s not a silver bullet. But it’s a step in the right direction.”