Horror crash
13 KILLED IN SUV PACKED WITH 25 GROWNUPS, KIDS
At least 13 people were killed after an overloaded SUV collided with a gravel-hauling semi truck Tuesday in Southern California near the Mexican border, authorities said.
Cops responding to the 6 a.m. crash in Holtville found a grisly scene, with 12 dead and others mangled both inside and outside the the SUV, according to police. A 13th person was pronounced dead upon arrival at a hospital.
The cause of the wreck remained under investigation, though officials believe the big rig slammed into a Ford Expedition carrying at least 25 people, including children, about 15 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The impact was so intense that multiple passengers were ejected from the crowded SUV and died after hitting the pavement, California Highway Patrol Chief Omar Watson said at a news conference. The driver and an unknown number of passengers were found dead inside the Expedition — a vehicle that is meant to seat only up to eight people.
“It’s a very sad situation,” Watson told reporters.
“Obviously, that vehicle is not meant for that many people,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that that many people were put into that vehicle because there’s not enough safety constraints to safely keep those people in that vehicle.”
The ages of those who died ranged from 20 to 55, and the youngest injured victim was 16, authorities said.
Watson said there were several minors in the vehicle but “no young children.”
Officials at El Centro Regional Medical Center, where many of the victims were transported, initially reported that 15 people had died in the crash. The death toll was later corrected by state officials.
Among the survivors, including the semi truck driver, injuries ranged from fractures to life-threatening head trauma, hospital officials said.
The crash occurred at an intersection in an agricultural area near state Route 115. The maroon Expedition was apparently heading westbound when it traveled “directly in the path of the big rig” in a northbound lane, Watson said.
“At this point it’s unknown whether or not the Expedition stopped at the stop sign, but it did enter the intersection in front of the big rig,” he said. “Subsequently the big rig collided with the left side of the Ford Expedition.”
The rate of speed for each vehicle was also unknown, authorities said.
Officials from the Mexican Consulate and U.S. Customs and Border Protection were assisting with the investigation as some of the victims appeared to have ties to Mexico or needed help with translation, authorities said.
A Border Patrol official told The Associated Press the SUV occupants may have been farmworkers. “It was an unusual number of people in an SUV, but we don’t know who they were,” said Macario Mora, a spokesman for the agency.
Dr. Adolphe Edward, El Centro Regional Medical Center’s chief executive officer, stressed that his hospital does not know or ask questions about its patients’ immigration status.
“We don’t use the term ‘undocumented’ in the hospital,” he said at a news conference. “To us, these folks that came to us are patients.”
Edward also declined to confirm whether any children were seriously hurt or killed in the crash.
“The patients are, of course, going through a little bit of a difficult time, as you can imagine,” he said. “This was a major accident, and we are taking care of them in the emergency room department.”