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Monday, June 08, 2009
10 Supposed Migrants Killed in Car Crash
Associated Press
SONOITA, Ariz. — Ten people "stacked like wood" in the back of a sports-utility vehicle were killed when the driver lost control shortly before midnight on a remote southern Arizona highway, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety said Sunday.
Joy Craig said at least 22 men and women were in the vehicle. They are all believed to be illegal immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and perhaps Mexico, she said.
"There was no rear seat in the (Ford) Excursion. They stack live people, as many as they can, like stacking wood," Craig told The Associated Press.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety said in a news release Sunday that the vehicle's driver lost control shortly before midnight Saturday for an unknown reason.
Most of the vehicle's 22 passengers were ejected.
Among the survivors, five people have been airlifted to a Tucson hospital and seven people were taken to hospitals in Tucson and Sierra Vista.
The identity of the driver, passengers and the vehicle's owner are being withheld pending their identification and notification of relatives.
The department says the cause of the rollover is under investigation.
Craig said investigators have not identified the driver. If the driver survives, Craig said charges against him would be pending. "Basically, this is like a 10-time homicide scene," she said.
Craig said the remote area about four miles east of Sonoita along the two-lane Arizona 82 where the vehicle rolled sees a lot of illegal immigrants.
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