killed, 9 hurt in accident deep in San Bernardino County desert


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10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, August 28, 2007

By RICHARD BROOKS
The Press-Enterprise

Long before sunrise and deep in the Mojave Desert, a pickup crammed with 10 Mexican citizens crashed Tuesday, killing one person and injuring nine others.

The vehicle's passengers were apparently being smuggled into the country, immigration officials said.

Rescue couldn't come quickly.

The crash site along Interstate 40 is 79 miles east of Barstow, the only city in that part of the Mojave. Even the closest gas station is 40 miles away. It took the first fire crews an hour to reach the scene, officials said.

Five medical helicopters were used to take the most seriously injured to hospitals in Las Vegas, Loma Linda and Palm Springs.

"They had patients scattered throughout the desert," said San Bernardino County Fire Department spokesman Otto Schramm.

A sixth helicopter -- a California Highway Patrol aircraft whose crew had to be summoned from home -- was used to help search the area around the crash site.

"We wanted to make sure we didn't leave someone laying out in the middle of the desert," said Battalion Chief Ron Walls. "It's out in the middle of nowhere."

The accident happened about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Five people were seated inside the crew-cab truck and five others were in the cargo compartment when the rented 2007 Chevrolet Silverado crashed through a guardrail and tumbled nearly 200 feet down an embankment, Officer Chris McLeod said by phone from the California Highway Patrol office in Barstow.

Passengers in the uncovered cargo bed were ejected. A 29-year-old man was trapped beneath the truck and died at the scene, McLeod said.

The 19-year-old driver suffered a broken left leg and had lacerations all over his body, McLeod said. He was found lying by the side of the truck. The remaining eight passengers left the scene, some carried by the less seriously injured, McLeod said. Emergency personnel found them about two miles from the accident site.

The cause of the crash wasn't immediately determined.

The names of the victims were not released. McLeod said all are Mexican citizens. He said investigators spoke to them only briefly before they were transported by medical crews.

"It clearly appears to have been a case involving human smuggling," said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs.

"I-40 is an increasingly popular human smuggling route," Kice said. "Some smuggling organizations are using Interstate 40 to bring aliens into the Los Angeles area from the Arizona border."

The pickup was rented in Los Angeles County, according to the preliminary investigation.

The wreck came 13 years after a Toyota pickup overloaded with 20 illegal immigrants crashed along Interstate 15 south of Barstow, killing 12 people in one of the deadliest highway accidents in California history.

In that case, the driver fell asleep at the wheel during the last leg of an all-night trip from Nogales, Ariz., investigators said at the time. The victims were from Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico.

Reach Richard Brooks at 909-806-3057 or rbrooks@PE.com

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stor ... 0732b.html