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10 killed in crash of packed van in south Texas

The sheriff said the van was not involved in a pursuit
Last Updated 05 August 2021, 01:58 IST

At least 10 people died after a van carrying more than two dozen people crashed Wednesday just south of Encino, Texas, about 80 miles north of the Mexico border, the local authorities said.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said its troopers were investigating a crash on northbound U.S. Highway 281, south of the Falfurrias U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint. The van was transporting 30 people, Sheriff Urbino Martinez of Brooks County said.

A Border Patrol official who was briefed on the crash but not authorized to speak publicly about it, said that a van was traveling at a high speed when it took a quick turn and crashed, and that the vehicle was believed to be carrying migrants.

There have been several major fatal crashes involving migrants this year as the United States confronts a deepening humanitarian crisis along the Mexican border.

In the Imperial Valley of California, 13 people packed into an SUV traveling from Mexico died in early March when the vehicle collided with a tractor-trailer rig. Federal authorities in the state later charged a 47-year-old U.S. resident with arranging transportation for people entering the country illegally.

Less than two weeks after the California crash, eight people died in southwestern Texas when a pickup truck collided head-on with another pickup during a 50-mile police chase. A 24-year-old Texas man was charged a few weeks later with “transporting illegal aliens resulting in death.”

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(Published 05 August 2021, 01:34 IST)

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