Fremont teen killed in Highway 17 crash ‘loved life,’ supported friends
Tina Cacilhas usually spends Mother’s Day at her grandmother’s house in Fremont, celebrating, eating, and hanging out with her son and family.
But this year, she asked that the whole event be canceled, after finding out Saturday her son, 17-year-old Armando Canales, was killed when a drunk driver plowed head on into a car Canales was riding in early Saturday.
“I’m crushed,” Cacilhas said Sunday in an interview. “My heart is completely empty. My son was my everything.”
Friends of Canales said he was a passenger in a Toyota with four other teenagers who were headed to the beach early Saturday on Highway 17.
Just after 2 a.m., authorities said the driver who allegedly caused the crash, 28-year-old Ashley Marie Oliver of San Jose, was driving north in the southbound lanes of 17 near Redwood Estates, and crashed into the Toyota Canales was in.
Three other people from the Toyota were hospitalized with injuries not believed to be life-threatening. One was treated at the scene for minor injuries.
Cacilhas and friends of Canales said they are having a hard time grappling with his death.
“I’m still in denial mode, and can’t accept the fact that my son is gone, when I had just saw him the night of,” Cacilhas said.
“It’s like a nightmare,” she said. “You want to wake up, it’s so unreal.”
“It’s just hurting me,” Jorden Brown, 17, one of Canales’ friends, football teammates and classmates at Washington High School in Fremont, said.
“I walked in his room and I just started crying, because every time I would walk in his room, he’s sitting right there on his gaming chair playing video games, and this time he wasn’t there, and he’s not coming back,” Brown said.
“I love that dude forever, no matter what.”
Cacilhas said her son, a junior at Washington, was a “social butterfly” who got along easily with others, was protective of his friends and those who needed help, and wanted to become a fireman.
He played football, basketball, and he loved video games, she said.
“My son, he loved life, he had goals in life,” she said. “He was so looking forward to graduating next year.”
As of Sunday night, a campaign set up Sunday morning to support Cacilhas in paying for funeral costs on GoFundMe.com had raised more than $5,000 toward a $10,000 goal, thanks to donations from nearly 120 people.
Julio Valdez, 16, said he knew “Mando” since first grade, when Canales moved into the same apartment complex as him, and they’ve been friends ever since, even taking the same fire tech classes at school.
“We talked about our dreams together, we talked about girls, we talked about everything together,” Valdez said. “We talked about how we both were going to make it together. And how we would grow up together,” he said Sunday.
“He was my best friend. I called him my brother.”
Valdez said Canales was an encouraging force in his life.
“He’d always pick me up. If I messed up in a class, I messed up on a test, or if I messed up in fire tech, he’d be right there, and he’d be like, ‘Hey, let’s go get another one. You’ll get it next time. You got it.’”
“He was just one of those guys, that no matter what, he could be having the worst day of his life…and he’ll still be picking you up with a smile, just so you’ll smile,” Valdez said.
Oliver, the drunken driver, was arrested on tentative charges of felony drunken driving and vehicular manslaughter after she was released from the hospital, California Highway Patrol Officer Ross Lee said.
A CHP officer had spotted Oliver’s Chrysler minivan driving the wrong direction just before the crash but couldn’t catch up to the car and stop it in time. Instead, the officer arrived after the minivan collided head-on with the Toyota, Lee said.
“I think it’s very unfortunate, because he was a great person and he didn’t deserve to be taken away from this earth this early, and by someone who was under the influence,” Valdez said.
Cacilhas, a single mother, said she’s been surrounded by family and friends since the news of Canales’ death. Valdez, Brown, and other friends of Canales were at her home Sunday night supporting her.
She said she’s been trying to “make something good out of a tragedy” by sitting all of Canales’ friends down to tell them to make smart choices around alcohol, and to never drink and drive. “There has to be some good to come out of it,” she said.
A vigil will take place at 8 p.m. Monday by the flagpole at Washington High School, 38442 Fremont Blvd., while a remembrance will happen 6 p.m. Tuesday at Shakers Pizza, 4075 Thornton Ave., friends said.
“Just knowing he’s not going to be here, kills me,” Valdez said about his friend.
“Someone I would hang out with every day of my life. Someone I would text daily, someone I would call daily,” he said.
“Now I can’t call him, I can’t text him.”
Social media also saw people affected by the tragic collision share their grief.
rest in paradise my beautiful angel I hope your smiling down from heaven alongside Nevaeh & I pray you look over me #mandosworld4L 5/11/19
— lulbratnatt (@Nataleezelayaa) May 11, 2019
Rest In Paradise #mandosworld4L
— austin (@auusttinnn_) May 11, 2019
i hope you restin in paradise w nevaeh , long live forever in our hearts , the both of you #nevaehsworld #mandosworld
— angelina estrella (@angelinasilvaaa) May 11, 2019
anything will help. https://t.co/9B3qk6nKWP
— Jas (@Jassmmin__) May 12, 2019
Please support! Anything helps #MANDOS https://t.co/YWdsDcRIlv
— S (@sricafrente2) May 12, 2019
A friend of my 17 year old sons was killed Friday night by a drunk driver. He was a funny, kind, and genuinely authentic soul. This mother’s day his single mother is planning her 16 year old sons funeral. Devastating. Please RT and donate if you canhttps://t.co/bn44zKnTuF
— Heather & Wasabi the Wonder Cat resist (@Heathers1031) May 12, 2019
https://t.co/txmjRXLhhh
Lost a little brother this weekend from a drunk driver. Please don’t drink & drive. Taking such a young life is heartbreaking.— Jalena Valdez (@JalenaValdez) May 12, 2019
anything helps https://t.co/CI9C07MkHe
— el vivster (@viviiiannaaaa) May 12, 2019
Staff writer Nico Savidge contributed to this report. Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.