3 Dead, 16 Injured in Van Crash : Chase Ends Violently for Suspected Illegal Aliens

OCOTILLO, Calif. —  A van loaded with suspected illegal aliens crashed early Wednesday during a high-speed chase with U.S. Border Patrol agents near here. Three people died and 16 were injured, Border Patrol officials said.

The van, carrying 19 people, was being chased by agents along a deserted stretch of Interstate 8 about 2 a.m. when the driver tried to make a sharp right turn onto Dunaway Road, said Richard Morrissey, assistant Border Patrol chief. The van went down a 20-foot embankment and overturned several times.

Two men who were slightly injured were held for questioning at a Border Patrol station in El Centro. Morrissey said he believes the passengers paid a professional smuggler to get them into the United States.

Border agents questioned the two men late Wednesday but were unable to learn who is operating the smuggling ring, he said.

“When you are moving that amount of people it’s not a mom and pop operation,” Morrissey said. “Sometimes the people won’t tell you who they paid and sometimes they don’t know.”

About half of the passengers were carrying Salvadoran or Guatemalan passports, he said. He speculated that the passengers may have paid $250 to $300 each to be smuggled into the country.

The van, bearing a California license plate, was traced to an El Cajon address, Morrissey said. The address led officials to a former owner of the van who is not a suspect in the case.

The Border Patrol’s account of the incident is that ground sensing devices along the international border indicated that several people were moving on foot toward Meyer Wash, a small town near Ocotillo.

Agents were dispatched to Meyer Wash, where they saw a red and white Ford van parked beside Interstate 8.

The driver of the van told the agents he had stopped to rest. The agents, suspicious of the man’s story, went east on Interstate 8 to wait for the van to pull away. When the van passed their patrol car several minutes later, the officers turned on flashing lights, but the driver refused to pull over.

When another patrol car joined the chase, the driver of the van tried twice to force that car off the road during the 13-mile chase, which reached speeds of 80 m.p.h.

The Imperial County coroner’s office released the name of one of the three victims killed in the crash. He was identified as Robert Alexander Guevara, 19, of El Salvador.

The other two victims were a 33-year-old woman who has several Los Angeles addresses and a 20-year-old man from Mexicali who police believe was driving the van. Their names will be released upon notification of relatives, Deputy Coroner David Corn said.

Ten of the survivors were hospitalized at El Centro Community Hospital with multiple fractures and internal injuries, nursing supervisor Margaret Riddle said.