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Another Vehicle Carrying Illegal Immigrants Crashes
Audrey Martin
KWCH 12 Eyewitness News
Thursday, March 23, 2006


"A red Dodge Dakota was westbound on highway 50. At some point, he began to lose control and began to fishtail," Trooper Paul Morrow said of the accident.

The accident details sound normal enough.

A truck crashes into a mini van during icy conditions.

Eventually, though, our questions reveal more.

The Dodge Caravan the truck driver hit held 12 illegal immigrants.

"We understand they were going from Colorado back to the North Carolina Tennessee area," Morrow said.

Later, the driver of the van died of his injuries.

Three others in the van are in Wichita hospitals.

Six are in the Newton Medical Center.

The rest are in custody until they can be deported.

It's getting to be a more familiar story in Kansas.

Earlier this year, 19 immigrants crammed into this pick-up.

Two died and more were injured.

This week a second accident sent 33 illegal immigrants to hospitals after an accident in North Central Kansas.

I talked to immigration officials in Dallas.

They say it's not unusual to see so many illegal immigrants this time of year.

"It's not uncommon for these people to head to agriculture or construction jobs throughout the country," Carl Rusnok, of Immigration Customs Enforcement, said.

What is unusual is we're actually seeing a lot of these workers.

Most of the accidents Immigrations Customs officials have been sent to were caused by bad weather conditions.

The accidents were made worse by the vehicle illegal immigrants are transported in.

"Alien smugglers don't drive the safest vehicles in the world. They are notorious for trying to maximize profits by using cheap vehicles and removing seats so they can stash as many people in vehicles as possible," Rusnok said.