Border Chase, Crash Left 9 Badly Hurt

A high-speed chase involving a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle and a car suspected of carrying illegal aliens ended Sunday in a crash at the Mexican border station in Tijuana that left nine persons seriously injured, U.S. authorities said Tuesday.

A Border Patrol sedan was pursuing the suspect car southbound on Interstate 5, which ends at the Mexican border, when the vehicle continued into Mexico at high speed and crashed into an embankment at the Mexican border station about 6:30 p.m., said Robert Gilson, assistant chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol in San Diego. Agents suspect that the car held illegal aliens being smuggled into the United States.

The vehicle, with 12 or 13 people inside, was at times going 80 miles an hour, Gilson said. The Border Patrol vehicle, its red lights flashing, kept up the chase for several miles until it slowed down about a mile from the border, Gilson said.

The crash Sunday was only the latest such incident to occur after the Border Patrol or another U.S. police agency chased a suspect vehicle on a highway leading to Mexico. Earlier this year, a Mexican customs officer in Tijuana was killed by a ricocheting bullet when Mexican officials opened fire on a vehicle chased into Mexico by the Border Patrol.

In the past, Mexican officials have been critical of the Border Patrol practice of chasing suspects back to Mexico.

“We’ve had discussions with them (the Border Patrol) about this, but I guess it’s their way of working,” said Jorge Veytia, commander of customs at the border station in Tijuana, who declined to criticize the Border Patrol. He said police were investigating the Sunday incident.

Veytia could provide no information on the condition of those injured in the crash. All were occupants of the car and are believed to be Mexican citizens, authorities said.