Driver slowed or stopped before crash killed 13 migrants

SAN DIEGO >> The driver of an SUV packed with migrants stopped or slowed before getting slammed by a tractor-trailer in one of the deadliest border-related crashes in U.S. history, according to testimony released Monday.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report includes the first published account of the driver of a tractortrailer who survived the March 2 crash in the farming community of Holtville, California, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of San Diego. It killed 13 of 25 people inside the 1997 Ford Expedition, including the driver.

The SUV had a stop sign, while the tractor-trailer did not. Both roads had a speed limit of 55 mph (88 kph).

“According to the truck driver, the SUV stopped or slowed to a near stop at the stop sign, then accelerated onto (State Highway 115) in front of the combination vehicle,” the four-paragraph report said. “The driver of the combination vehicle applied the brakes and skidded until the front of his vehicle collided with the left side of the SUV.”

The big rig driver’s account appears to settle the question of whether the SUV driver blew through the stop sign or slowed. The crash remain under investigation.

The driver of the big rig, who is from the nearby California community of El Centro, suffered moderate injuries. The deceased were from Mexico and Guatemala.

The Expedition is built to hold eight people safely, but smugglers are known to pack people into vehicles in extremely unsafe conditions to maximize their profits. Seats in the SUV had been removed except for those for the driver and front passenger.

A 1997 Ford Expedition can carry a maximum payload of 2,000 pounds. If it had 25 people inside, that would easily exceed the payload limit, taxing the brakes and making it tougher to steer the vehicle, Frank Borris, former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation, said in a recent interview.