Migrant survivors cite horror of Mexico crash that killed 55
TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico — Survivors of the horrific truck crash in Mexico that killed 55 migrants and injured more than a hundred recounted from their hospital beds how their location inside the truck determined who lived and who died.
Those unlucky enough to be riding jammed against the fragile walls of the freight container almost certainly died, survivors said. Those in the middle of the packed group survived, cushioned by their fellow migrants as the container flipped onto the road.
“The ones who died were the ones who were up against the walls of the trailer,” said one young migrant from Guatemala, who was being treated for a broken arm at a local hospital. “Thank God, we were in the middle, but the ones on the sides, they died.”
The migrant, who did not want to give his name because he did not have proper documents in Mexico, described a gruesome scene of screaming and blood in the moments after the truck crashed into the base of a steel pedestrian bridge Thursday evening. He said about 250 migrants were on board.
First, the living had to extricate themselves from the tangled pile of dead and dying bodies.
“They fell on top of me, there were like two or three fellow migrants on top of me,” the youth said.
Then came the grim task of trying to pull the wounded out.
“When I got out, another fellow migrant was shouting,” the survivor said. “He was shouting to me, I pulled at him and got him out and put him on the side of the road, but he died.”
The youth said the truck’s driver, whose whereabouts are unknown, had entered a sharp curve at a high rate of speed and lost control.
It was one of the deadliest days for migrants in Mexico since the 2010 massacre of 72 people by the Zetas drug cartel in the northern state of Tamaulipas.
The head of Mexico’s National Guard, Luis Rodriguez Bucio, said the truck had somehow managed to avoid passing through any of the roadside checkpoints operated by the Guard and immigration authorities to catch such smuggling operations.
Most aboard were from Guatemala and Honduras, migrant Celso Pacheco of Guatemala said, estimating eight to 10 young children among them. He said he was trying to reach the United States but now expects to be deported to Guatemala. Authorities said migrants from Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Mexico were also aboard.
Those who spoke to survivors said they told of boarding the truck in Mexico, near the border with Guatemala, and of paying between $2,500 and $3,500 to be taken to Mexico’s central state of Puebla. Once there, they would presumably have contracted with another set of smugglers to take them to the U.S. border.
Rescue workers said other migrants who had been on the truck when it crashed fled for fear of being detained by immigration agents. One paramedic said some of those who hurried into surrounding neighborhoods were bloodied or bruised but still limped away in their desperation to escape.