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 News from Around the Americas | August 2006 
Mexican Charged in Deaths of Cargo
 Arthur H. Rotstein & Jacques Billeaud - Associated Press
| | A sport utility vehicle involved in a high speed chase with the U.S. Board Patrol is show near Yuma, Ariz., Monday, Aug. 7, 2006. The vehicle, crammed with suspected illegal immigrants, rolled over in an attempt to outrun Border Patrol agents, killing nine people and injuring at least 12 others, officials said. (AP Photo/The Sun, Terry Ketron) |
Yuma, Ariz. - Authorities filed charges yesterday against the man believed to be behind the wheel during a rollover crash that killed nine illegal immigrants and injured a dozen more inside a sport utility vehicle.
Survivors of the crash claimed the driver was 20-year-old Adan Pineda of Mexico. He was in federal custody and charged with one count of transporting illegal aliens, said Russell Ahr, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Ahr said the investigation will determine whether more charges are warranted.
The SUV was carrying 21 people Monday when the driver tried to circumvent a checkpoint on a highway more than 30 miles north of Yuma, authorities said. With Border Patrol agents in pursuit, the driver attempted to make a U-turn and rolled over.
Five of the injured, including a pregnant woman, were hospitalized in critical condition in Phoenix, most with head trauma. Investigators said the passengers were probably stacked inside the SUV at the time of the accident.
Miguel Escobar Valdez, the Mexican consul in Yuma, said the accident was "a very lamentable circumstance, and points out the greediness and lack of moral conscience" of immigrant smugglers.
Escobar said his office had identified most of the victims but would not release their names until families were notified. He said they came from various areas of Mexico, including Mexico City, Guanajuato, Michoacan and Puebla.
Before Monday, 42 immigrants had died in vehicle accidents over the past 10 months nationwide while trying to cross the border, a 16 percent rise from this time last year, the Border Patrol said. Motor vehicle accidents now rank as the fourth-leading known cause of death during border crossings.
"It's a steady source of border deaths - not a major one, but one that continues," said Nestor Rodriguez, director of the University of Houston's Center for Immigration Research, which has studied immigrant deaths since 1995.
The government has put more agents and surveillance technology at the border in recent years, and smugglers are turning to more-remote areas, where their drivers are unfamiliar with the rugged terrain. In some instances, smugglers lead authorities on chases to avoid capture or, short of that, to slip away long enough to exit the vehicle and try to blend in with their customers, thus avoiding human trafficking prosecution.
"They are willing to drive 90 mph down the highway and hope the Border Patrol drops away," said Raymond Cobos, undersheriff for Luna County, N.M., which is part of that state's busiest human-smuggling corridor. |
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