Witnesses: 2 bail from ambulance after immigrant wreck
May 08, 2012 9:58 PM

McALLEN — Two illegal immigrants en route to the hospital after a two-vehicle wreck bailed from the ambulance, witnesses said, and made a run for it Tuesday afternoon near 29th and Lark streets.

The two men were among 10 illegal immigrants riding in a Ford F-150 pickup truck that caused the wreck when it failed to yield the right of way to a GMC truck carrying a load of potatoes, said Trooper Johnny Hernandez, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Seven of the 10 immigrants were sent to the hospital.

About 3 p.m., state troopers were called to the intersection of Mile 13 and Wallace Road — the scene of the wreck, Hernandez said.

The Ford was traveling eastbound on Mile 13 when it failed to yield the right of way to the GMC, causing the collision, Hernandez said. The GMC truck rolled on its side, while the pickup sustained damage but did not roll over.

While en route to a local hospital, two men get off the ambulance near the library on Lark and 29th streets, neighbors said.

The two men were detained by McAllen police shortly thereafter near the intersection of 36th and Lark streets.

At the intersection of 36th and Lark streets, two McAllen police patrol cars had two men in handcuffs as they waited for Border Patrol to arrive.

The men spoke with a Central or South American accent and appeared to be in their 20s. One of the immigrants, who was wearing a blue sweatshirt, said the driver of the pickup in which they were riding was drunk, and the vehicle had been swerving along the road before the wreck.

Hernandez said the matter of the immigrants bailing from the ambulance was under investigation.

2 bail from ambulance after immigrant wreck | witnesses, wreck, ambulance - Witnesses - TheMonitor.com