54 dead after truck smuggling migrants crashes in Mexico

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico (AP) — Rescue workers arriving at a road accident in southern Mexico found a horrific scene: A tractor trailer jammed with as many as 200 migrants crashed into the base of a steel pedestrian bridge, killing 54 and injuring dozens.

The migrants inside the tipped-over trailer were tossed and crushed in a pile of both the living and the dead.

In addition to the 54 killed Thursday evening, at least 53 were injured.

It was one of the deadliest days for migrants in Mexico since the 2010 massacre of 72 people by the Zetas drug cartel in the northern state of Tamaulipas.

Volunteer rescuers removed the dead from the pile, while the living scrambled to get out of the twisted debris of the collapsed trailer.

One young man, pinned beneath unmoving bodies, wriggled to free the lower half of his frame, his face wrenched into a grimace as he extracted himself.

Nearby, a man blinked, unable to move as he lay on the side of the road. Next to him was an older, stouter migrant whose lifeless eyes stared into the setting sun.

While the Mexican government is trying to appease the United States by stopping caravans of walking migrants and allowing the reinstatement of the “Remain in Mexico” policy, it has been unable to staunch the flood of migrants stuffed by the hundreds into trucks operated by smugglers who charge thousands of dollars to take them to the US border — trips that all too often lead them only to their deaths.

The most severely injured from the accident were carried to plastic sheets on the road.

Those who could walk were led, stunned, to the same sheets. Ambulances, cars and pickup trucks were pressed into ferrying the injured to hospitals.

Later, the dead were covered in white sheets, side by side, on the highway.

Rescue workers who first arrived said other migrants who had been on the truck when it crashed had fled for fear of being detained by immigration agents.

One paramedic said some of those who hurried into surrounding neighbourhoods were bloodied or bruised but still limped away in their desperation to escape.

About 200 migrants may have been packed into the truck, said Guatemala's top human rights official, Jordán Rodas.

That number is not unusual for migrant smuggling operations in Mexico, and the weight of the load — combined with speed and a nearby curve — may have been enough to throw the truck off balance, authorities said.

Luis Manuel Moreno, head of the Chiapas state civil defence office, said about 21 were seriously injured and were taken to hospitals.

The federal Attorney General's Office said three were critically injured in the crash, which happened on a highway leading from the Guatemalan border toward the Chiapas state capital.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.