Man dies in race past checkpoint

UNION-TRIBUNE
April 5, 2006

PINE VALLEY – A race to avoid the Border Patrol yesterday ended when a speeding car flipped and ejected five passengers, killing one of them, authorities said.

Three of the four survivors were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, said Officer Brian Pennings of the California Highway Patrol. The fourth survivor was less seriously injured.

The car, a blue Ford Probe, failed to stop at a checkpoint on westbound Interstate 8 east of Pine Valley, said Richard Kite of the Border Patrol.

He said agents headed after the Probe and came upon it, overturned, on Olde Highway 80 just west of Pine Valley. Kite said he did not know if agents had been in pursuit.

Neither Kite nor Pennings said whether those in the car are suspected illegal border-crossers.

The car was going about 100 mph when the driver lost control. The car crossed into the eastbound lane, hit a dirt embankment, then hit a fence and rolled onto its roof and slid several hundred feet, Pennings said.

A witness saw that the right rear tire of the Probe was deflated as the driver sped down the road. The tire, a spare not designed for high speeds, disintegrated in the crash, Pennings said.

The occupants of the car included one woman. The man who died was a 24-year-old resident of Mexico, Pennings said.

The Mexican consulate was notified to help identify the victims and contact their families.

This is not that far from where I live. This is what we have to face regularly. Luckily no innocent Americans were killed, but if they were, you can be sure the local news would try to sweep it under the rug, as they usually do. When car full of illegals, driving 100 mph in the wrong direction of the freeway in the fast lane at night with their lights off and crashes head on into innocent people, most of our local news reports them as simple WRONG WAY DRIVER stories.