Border Patrol vehicle collides with semi


Friday, June 1, 2007 9:02 AM PDT




EMERGENCY PERSONNEL ARE CALLED IN TO TREAT A GROUP OF ILLEGAL ALIENS WHO SAID THEY HAD SUFFERED INJURIES FOLLOWING A COLLISION INVOLVING A BORDER PATROL VEHICLE THAT WAS TRANSPORTING THEM TO NOGALES.


By JB Miller

A Border Patrol agent from the Sonoita station was cited after the vehicle he was driving collided with a commercial truck near the Patagonia Roadside rest area on Tuesday morning.

Law enforcement officials declined to identify the agent nor the specifics about the citation.

Five illegal aliens who were being transported in the Border Patrol vehicle were taken to Carondelet Holy Cross Hospital where they were treated for minor injuries, according to lawmen at the scene.


At about 8:15 a.m., a commercial truck hauling a flatbed trailer was traveling eastbound on State Route 82 when at Milepost 15.6, a Border Patrol vehicle heading westbound toward Nogales sideswiped the eighteen-wheeler, said an officer of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

"The Border Patrol vehicle did go into the eastbound lane for a little bit," said the DPS officer. "He was actually traveling on the other side of the road."

Both vehicles continued traveling in opposite directions for about a half-mile before each came to a stop. Five of the ten passengers who were riding in the Border Patrol vehicle told the agent who was driving that they had suffered injuries during the collision at which point emergency personnel from the Patagonia Fire Department were called as well as an ambulance.

A spokesperson for the Border Patrol said the injured passengers were treated and "deemed fit to travel" by a physician. They were then released into the custody of the Border Patrol.

"Thank God nothing happened," said Georgina de la Garza Garcia, a spokesperson for the Mexican Consulate. De la Garza Garcia said the Mexican Consulate sent representatives to the Mariposa Road Border Patrol station to interview the group before they were deported to Mexico. She said that all they were all from the state of Queretaro.

In December 2006, an agent from the Sonoita Station was traveling on SR 83 when he went off the road and rolled a Border Patrol vehicle near Milepost 51. A DPS spokesperson said the agent claimed someone was in his lane, and the agent took evasive action to avoid a head-on collision. "We can't substantiate that with evidence to determine if that happened or it didn't happen," the spokesperson said at the time. "The bottom line is he went off the road and rolled his vehicle." The agent was not cited.

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