Crash Kills Boy in Van Fleeing Border Patrol

An infant boy was killed and 18 people were hospitalized early Tuesday when a van loaded with 28 suspected illegal aliens crashed while attempting to elude the U.S. Border Patrol on California 117 near the border, authorities said.

The accident was the second Tuesday involving a Border Patrol chase in San Diego County, and the latest in a series of crashes stemming from Border Patrol pursuits of suspected alien smugglers.

Attempted U-Turn

Officials said that the van, westbound on California 117 near Interstate 805, attempted to make a U-turn about 8:15 a.m. to avoid two pursuing Border Patrol sedans. Traveling about 40 m.p.h., the van overturned and rolled before landing upright on the highway’s grassy center divider, authorities said.

The pursuit lasted about five minutes, and it was not a high-speed chase, said Wayne Kirkpatrick, a Border Patrol spokesman in San Diego.

At the accident scene, dazed passengers crawled out of the damaged van and sprawled in the median, many of them moaning in pain and grasping their injuries. Many suffered head wounds when the van overturned. Passers-by, including two medical personnel from the U.S. Navy who were the first on the scene, quickly provided stopgap medical attention until paramedics could arrive.

“When I got here, there were (victims) spread out all over the place,” Sgt. J.A. McDonald of the California Highway Patrol said.

A Life Flight helicopter and ambulances rushed 19 passengers--including the fatally injured infant--to five hospitals. The driver, whose identity was not immediately known, was among those hospitalized, officials said. The driver could face federal alien-smuggling charges and a felony vehicular manslaughter charge involving the crash.

Border Patrol officials said that Raul Garcia Holguin and Jose Aguilar Farias, who were in the van, were the two men responsible for transporting the aliens.

Nine people were treated for minor injuries at the scene and taken into custody by the Border Patrol. Of the other injured people, 15 were released to the custody of the Border Patrol after being treated at area hospitals.

Officials said all of the van’s occupants were illegal aliens, with the exception of the 3-month-old infant, Cesar Antonio Gastelum. The boy’s mother told Border Patrol officers that the child was born in Fresno.

Son Trampled, Mother Says

The mother, Francisca Serrano, 23, was in fair condition at Sharp Memorial Hospital with a broken left wrist and facial abrasions. In a telephone interview from the hospital, Serrano said she and her son were sitting on the floor of the van when the vehicle overturned and pandemonium ensued.

“People were falling all over us,” Serrano said. “As the people were getting out, they stepped on my son as well.”

She said she entered the van about 7 a.m. in Tijuana. After arriving in the United States, Serrano said, she was supposed to pay $300 for herself and $100 for her son in smuggling fees.

Another Mexican victim, Antonio Tapia, 35, was in fair condition at Chula Vista Community Hospital. He suffered a fractured vertebra.

In fair condition at Scripps Memorial Hospital was Jose Reyes, another Mexican national, who suffered a broken hand. Others injured included Guadulupe Cortez Martinez, 16, and Rosie Hernandez, 19, both of Guerrero, Mexico.

The van is believed to have entered the United States on one of the many dirt tracks that lead across the border east of the port of entry at San Ysidro. Border Patrol agents spotted the same van near the border Sunday, but the vehicle quickly fled back into Mexico.

Latest of Fatal Crashes

In recent years, Border Patrol chases have resulted in several fatal crashes.

A crash in August, 1983, near Coachella killed 11 people who were fleeing from a Border Patrol vehicle.

More recently, seven illegal aliens were seriously injured in a San Clemente crash in December after a high-speed chase

that began when a car went through the Border Patrol checkpoint in northern San Diego County along Interstate 5.

Critics have charged that these cases demonstrate the agency’s insensitivity toward illegal aliens.

Border Patrol officials “are more interested in arrest quotas than in the safety of people,” said Roberto Martinez, an activist with the American Friends Service Committee who advises illegal aliens in San Diego. “There appears to be a total disregard for human life in these pursuits.”

But Border Patrol officials defend their agents’ actions, claiming that they have no choice but to pursue suspected smuggling vehicles that refuse to yield. In Tuesday’s incident, Kirkpatrick said, the driver made a hazardous U-turn while attempting to avoid capture.

“The blame goes to the . . . driver; that person has no concern for the persons whom he’s driving,” Kirkpatrick said. “We’re not going to let a smuggler go down the road . . . without attempting to pursue that individual.”

In the other incident Tuesday, officials said the Border Patrol arrested 12 suspected illegal aliens shortly before 4 a.m. after a high-speed chase along Interstate 5 and the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge. The case ended when the suspected smuggling vehicle--a stolen truck--crashed into a parked vehicle and stopped on J Street near downtown San Diego, officials said. No one was believed to have been injured.

The chase lasted for an unspecified number of miles along Interstate 5 and the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge, which the alleged smuggling vehicle entered and then quickly exited by means of a hazardous U-turn, the Border Patrol said.

When the truck stopped, five suspects, including the driver, fled on foot, officials said.