2 Truck Drivers Chase, Catch 5 Suspected Aliens After Crash

Two truck drivers chased and caught five suspected illegal aliens Friday as they fled the scene of a traffic collision, police said.

The truck drivers, whose names were not known, held the five until police arrived, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Joe Monteon.

The five Latinos were taken to Corona City Jail and later turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol. A sixth was picked up by Corona police and taken to Corona Community Hospital for treatment of injuries that he received in the collision.

The men had been passengers in a 1972 Chevrolet Monte Carlo traveling northbound on El Sobrante Road, a surface street that serves as Interstate 15 through eastern Corona, when it smashed into the rear of a car near the intersection with 6th Street.

Highway Patrol investigators estimated that the Chevrolet had been traveling 30 or 35 m.p.h. when it hit the other car, which was stationary, Monteon said.

As the driver of the Chevrolet yelled something to his passengers, witnesses told police, the six men bolted eastward on 6th Street. The truck drivers caught them about a mile and a half away.

When the Highway Patrol arrived, the Chevrolet was empty, and it bore no license plates, Monteon said. Investigators were trying to trace its ownership.

The other driver, Julie Ann Wine, 29, of Irvine, complained of neck and back pain, and was taken to Circle City Hospital in Corona, where she was examined and released, a spokesman there said.

The driver of the Chevrolet was not found, Monteon said. The men told authorities that the driver had picked them up in Mexicali and charged them each $300 to bring them into the United States.

He called himself el aguacate --the avocado--the men said.