This is the devastating moment a SoCal father broke down in tears from hospital Wednesday when opening up about the death of his wife and two young kids following a horrific car crash.
Felix Valenzuela, his wife, and three kids were driving eastbound in Apple Valley last month when a 43-year-old Hesperia man, Hendrix Arcadio Collado, allegedly ran a red light and hit another vehicle, which then careened into them.
Valenzuela and his 16-year-old daughter survived with severe injuries. His other two kids, a six and seven-year-old, and his wife, Theodora Wilson, 39, died at the scene.
Collado, who was hospitalized with severe injuries, has been charged with three counts of manslaughter with gross negligence and three counts of reckless driving causing injury.
He was initially charged with driving under the influence, with police still investigating whether drugs or alcohol may have influenced the crash.
A third driver was treated at the scene of the crash.
“They killed three people in my family,” he cried in an interview with Fox 11. “Three innocent people who didn’t deserve to die.”
“My injuries are nothing compared to what my kids went through,” he said, donning a neck brace and sitting in a wheelchair, “and my wife.”
His eldest daughter, who remains hospitalized, was “basically decapitated.”
“Her skull came off of her… spine, like, completely dislocated. But they were able to… do some surgery and… fix her up, I guess, like put her head back together,” he said.
“I know he didn’t do it on purpose, but you shouldn’t be driving under the influence, period,” he said.
A GoFundMe has been started in honor of Felix’s family with a stated goal of $100,000. The fundraiser has raised nearly $79,000 so far.
He said the crash didn’t just mangle his body — it has broken his heart in ways he couldn’t imagine. “My heart is more broken than anything.”
