Car Crash Kills Illegal Immigrants

Betty McMahon August 09, 2008

The 19 illegal immigrants had traveled a long road, some from as far away as El Salvador and Guatemala. Their dreams of living and working in the United States were almost in sight when they packed into an SUV to carry them north, away from the border. But on a rural road northwest of Tucson, AZ, those dreams came to an abrupt halt as the SUV left the road on Thursday, and rolled, just before 8 a.m. Nine died in the crash and 10 were taken to hospitals.

Identities will not be released until families are notified. Guatemalan Consul General Oscar Padilla told news media that at least five of the survivors are from El Salvador. Three are from Mexico, and at least one of those who died was from Guatemala.

The driver, who survived the crash, has not yet talked to investigators. Four of the survivors, apparently from El Salvador, were listed in good condition in a Phoenix hospital. Two of three survivors taken to a Tucson hospital remained in critical condition, and a third was listed in fair condition after surgery for a leg fracture, according to a spokeswoman. Two of the three were from Mexico. Conditions of two other survivors at Maricopa Medical Center and one at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborne Hospital were not released. One person at Maricopa Medical Center was from El Salvador and the patient at the Scottsdale hospital from Mexico.

All but two in the vehicle were men. The two women aboard were among the dead.

Speed and driver inattention appear to have contributed to the collision, according to a press release, but the cause remains under investigation.

The crash that took the lives of the passengers was violent, as it bumped across a dry wash, then slammed into a concrete abutment and flipped over. The force of the accident caused the SUV roof to cave in, trapping many inside who had to be extricated.

The Tucson Citizen reports that the narrow highway, which runs through a scenic cactus forest to the eastern outskirts of metro Phoenix, has become a popular route for immigrant smugglers desperate to avoid the Border Patrol. Authorities said they regularly stop vehicles loaded with people lacking U.S. legal status documents racing along state Route 79 and other northbound roadways in Arizona, though few have been as tragic as Thursday's crash.

Most of the vehicles that transport illegal immigrants are poorly equipped to be on the road, let alone carrying too many people along with their belongings. A Border Patrol spokesman said these vehicles typically have bald tires, faulty transmissions and altered suspensions. “Racing along twisting stretches of rural Arizona roads can be particularly perilous in such vehicles,” he said.

"We're working very hard on this case," Padilla said. "It's a terrible, really terrible situation. If they are Guatemalans, we will do everything possible to repatriate them and return the dead home."