A grieving daughter is holding on to the memory of her last conversation with her father before he was killed in a head-on collision while driving to work in Southern California.
“I remember that night he came over and said, ‘I’m leaving now, dear,’ and I said, ‘Okay, be careful,’ ” Julissa Jimenez told NBC affiliate KNBC as she recalled the final words she spoke to her father, Julián Jimenez Ceniceros, on Thursday, Dec. 4. “And I kissed him on the forehead.”
Julián, 53, was on his way to the Malibu restaurant where he worked but never made it there. That evening, he was driving his Chevrolet Tahoe along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu when a Dodge Charger traveling northbound veered into oncoming traffic and slammed into his SUV head-on, KNBC and CW affiliate KTLA reported.
Both drivers died at the scene, and a passenger in the Charger was seriously injured, according to the outlets. A spokesperson for the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office confirms that the victims who died were Julián and 19-year-old Jorje Carballido.
Officials told the outlets that alcohol is believed to have played a role in the crash. The California Highway Patrol and the Ventura County Fire Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Julissa said she first heard that there had been a serious crash and tried calling her father, but he never picked up. Soon after, she came across videos of the collision circulating online, KNBC reported.
“And from a distance, I could see a truck, and I said, ‘It looks like my dad’s, but I can’t see it clearly, I can’t see the license plates,’ ” she recalled through tears. A California Highway Patrol officer later confirmed that her father had been killed.
Julián moved from Mexico to the United States as a teenager and worked tirelessly to build a better life, his family told KNBC.
“He worked hard for us and for his family in Mexico, and he didn’t deserve to die like that,” Julissa said. She explained that her father had dreamed of returning to his hometown in northwest Mexico to visit relatives after decades apart.
“That was the hardest part because he was really looking forward to going to Durango,” she told KNBC, adding that the family plans to bury her father in Mexico. “He had been living here for thirty years and wanted to see his parents and siblings and nephews, but he never made it.”
