San Jose police arrest juvenile in deadly hit-and-run car crash

SAN JOSE, Calif. - San Jose police say a man was killed in a hit-and-run collision at Nieman Boulevard and Daniel Maloney Drive early Wednesday morning. Police say it happened just after 4 a.m. and a juvenile has been arrested for their involvement in the crash.

"I could hear one car screaming up 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 over the last few years he’s witnessed about eight car crashes at the intersection. Archie says he was already awake when he heard the two cars collide.

"I heard the kids that were in the accident holler ‘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 truck was hit and killed by someone driving a black Chevy Camaro traveling at a high speed. 

Lily Quintanilla, who did not want to speak on camera, says the man killed is her father, 59-year-old Nicandro Quintanilla.  

Police also say a juvenile believed to be driving the black Camaro was taken into custody after leaving the scene of the crash. Neighbors described the aftermath of the collision.

"There was a black car that was right there, going into the tree, and it was in flames in the front where the bumper is. They popped the hood," said one 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 at about 25 feet away, you can see where the truck came down. So, it actually got airborne," said Bryan Butler of San Jose.

The city of San Jose says it’s aware of the dangers posed at 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 the vehicles are driving in a circle around the center roundabout. So, we think there’s going to be a vast safety improvement at that intersection, and it’s just a shame that it hadn’t been built by this morning," said Colin Heyne spokesperson for the San Jose Transportation Department.

This is the 12th traffic death in San Jose this year and the city says they have dozens of safety projects underway. 

In 2022 there were a record-high 65 traffic deaths in San Jose 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 family in Mexico.