http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/10071.php

Published: 04.21.2006
Migrant crashes tax UMC resources
Hospital's chief blames rollover that killed 4, hurt 21 on immigration policy
SHERYL KORNMAN
Southern Arizona's only Level 1 trauma center expects to be "slammed" again at any moment, as it was yesterday morning after a rollover crash in Santa Cruz County killed four illegal immigrants.
The nine most critically injured in the crash, all adults, were airlifted to University Medical Center in Tucson early yesterday morning.
"It was calm chaos; busy but under control," said UMC's trauma director, Dr. John M. Porter, who wrangled all available hospital staff, including medical residents and intensive care nurses, to handle the nearly simultaneous admissions to the trauma center.
Porter spoke at a news conference yesterday with other hospital officials.
Most of the patients cannot talk because of their injuries. They had no identification.
He and hospital president Greg Pivirotto called these incidents of "overcrowded motor vehicle trauma" from the smuggling of illegal immigrants a "serious national problem" with a huge impact here.
"This is not the first," he said.
These victims need weeks of care and will continue to challenge the trauma center's resources, they said. One of the nine died of his injuries at UMC. Five men and one woman remain in critical condition today with multiple injuries. Two men are in serious condition. Twenty-one were hurt.
"We're a busy hospital. For us to get crushed with this type of accident - it takes all of our resources," Pivirotto said. "When we get slammed like this, it's a huge issue."
Pivirotto said accidents like this one are the result of "the lack of a sound immigration policy in this country. Our country has to come to grips with that."

OTHER CRASHES
Examples of accidents that caused multiple deaths and injuries:
Feb. 28, 2005: One person was killed and five injured when a car crashed near Interstate 10 near the Sonoita Highway exit.
Oct. 16, 2004: Jimir Valle Martinez and Jose Luis Zepeda-Cruz were carrying 17 illegal immigrants, including 11 in the bed of their truck, when, following a pursuit by the Border Patrol near Sierra Vista, Martinez crashed into 10 other vehicles. Five people died and 23 were injured.
Sept. 12 and 14, 2004: In separate collisions, both involving pickup trucks that rolled over, a total of eight illegal immigrants were killed, with another eight injured