Tragedy in San José
San José police report that a man was killed in a hit-and-run crash at the intersection of Nieman Boulevard and Daniel Maloney Drive early Wednesday morning. Police say it happened just after 4 a.m. and a minor has been arrested for their involvement in the crash.
"I could hear a car screaming down the road here, and that's when I could tell it was going fast," said Darnell Archie.
Archie lives at the corner of Nieman Boulevard and Daniel Maloney Drive.
He says that in recent years he has witnessed about eight car crashes at the intersection. Archie says he was already awake when he heard the two cars collide.
"I heard the guys that were in the wreck yelling 'run' and they took off," said Archie.
Police say they responded to the crash around 4:12 a.m. Wednesday. Investigators say the man driving the white Nissan Frontier pickup truck was struck and killed by someone driving a black Chevy Camaro at high speed.
Lily Quintanilla, who did not want to speak on camera, says the man killed is her father, Nicandro Quintanilla, 59.
Police also say a minor believed to be driving the black Camaro was detained after leaving the scene of the crash. Neighbors described the aftermath of the crash.
"There was a black car that was right there, going towards the tree, and it was on fire in the front where the bumper is. They lifted the hood," said a witness who lives nearby and did not want to be identified.
"After everyone left, I looked at the skid marks. You can see the point of impact and about 25 feet away, you can see where the pickup truck landed. So, it actually flew through the air," said Bryan Butler of San José.
The city of San José says it is aware of the dangers posed by the intersection and plans to build a roundabout there in 2025.
"A roundabout makes it nearly impossible to have a head-on collision or a T-bone collision at high speeds because vehicles drive in a circle around the central roundabout. So we believe there will be a vast improvement in safety at that intersection, and it's a shame it wasn't built for this morning," said Colin Heyne, spokesperson for the San José Department of Transportation.
This is the twelfth traffic fatality in San José this year, and the city says it has dozens of safety projects underway.
In 2022, there was a record of 65 traffic fatalities in San José, and last year there were 49, which is the lowest number recorded since 2017.
Quintanilla's family has set up a GoFundMe account to help bury him with the family in Mexico.
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