STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It was about 1 a.m. on Tuesday when Giovanni Balsamo learned it was a childhood friend who was one of two men who died in a fatal crash on Richmond Avenue in Bulls Head.

"As soon as I found out it was Danny..." said Balsamo, fighting through tears during a telephone interview Tuesday with the Advance. "I still can't believe he's gone."

Daniel Castellano, 19, of Bulls Head, was behind the wheel of a 2009 Ford Fusion that made impact with parked car, telephone pole and ultimately a construction site late Monday night on the 1900 block of Richmond Avenue, according to a NYPD spokesman.

Both Castellano and his passenger, Sebastian Serrano, 17, of Arden Heights, were pronounced dead on arrival at Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.

Castellano, a graduate of Moore Catholic High School, had recently returned home from U.S. Army training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, according to his Facebook page.

According to a fundraiser on GoFundMe.com, Castellano was an honors student at one point and made it through boot camp.

"No matter what obstacles he had to over come he was a great kid," the fundraiser says.

Balsamo, who last spoke with Castellano about a year ago, said he had been meaning to catch up with his old friend, who by all accounts had come back from the military, "...with a clear mind, ready to take on the world."

But he never got the chance to see it for himself.

"I got caught up with work and everything else," he said. "After this, I'm definitely gonna try harder to make time for friends. You never know."

Balsamo called off work Tuesday and headed to the scene, where he taped a farewell letter to a telephone pole.

"I wanted to take time out of my day to show how much I appreciated him as a friend and a person."

A man who answered the door at Castellano's home declined to comment on Tuesday.

Balsamo said he met Castellano they were 11 or 12 years old, and at one point spent nearly every day together. He described his friend as a dedicated older brother.

"If Danny heard his sister was getting picked on, he always was the first one trying to find out where it came from," he said.

A source told the Advance that speed is believed to be a factor in the crash, which police say remains under investigation.

A female friend, around the same age as Danny, wrote the following on Instagram in the hours following his death:

"I will always love you for your carefree spirit and constant joking and trying to make people laugh... safe passage on your travels until your final journey, may we meet again."