Survivor Says 18 in Boxcar Died ‘Little by Little’

An illegal alien who lived 14 hours in a locked boxcar while 18 companions died said Friday that he carved a hole with a railroad spike “for all of us to survive,” but the others went crazy, fought among themselves and died “little by little.”

Miguel Tostado Rodriguez, 21, the sole survivor of one of the worst tragedies ever involving aliens’ trying to enter the United States from Mexico, described his ordeal through an interpreter at a news conference at the El Paso Border Patrol detention center.

“This was a very horrible experience,” Tostado said. “I saw people dying there beside me. At dawn, I could see the light from the hole. . . . Somehow, I was able to hear the footsteps, and I knew that I had made it.

“I was happy to see the door open, but the worst part was seeing my comrades scattered all over the car,” he said.

Border Patrol spokesman Mike Williams said 11 undocumented aliens were detained Friday in Sierra Blanca on the same Union Pacific freight route where the 18 men died Thursday. More than 44,000 aliens are found annually on trains in the El Paso area, he said.

Two smugglers were among the men who died in the airtight boxcar, and Tostado said they carved an eight-inch hole in the wooden floor. Tostado said he did not help the smugglers dig the hole at first because “I was able to get a little air through a crack.”

But when only four people were left alive, he said he tried to help the smugglers. “The two guys had made a small hole. I tried to make it large enough for all of us to survive.”

Too Tired to Help

But Tostado said at that point the other three men were too tired to help.

“People started dying little by little, little by little,” Tostado told the Houston Chronicle on Thursday. “They started fighting with each other because they were desperate to breathe. They didn’t have any water. So they started to get crazy and fight each other.”

Williams said the 19 men were locked into the insulated boxcar by one of three “coyotes”--smugglers who assist illegal aliens in crossing the border--at the El Paso freight yard Wednesday afternoon.

The smuggler remained at large Friday, Williams said. Agents acting on information provided by Tostado were searching the El Paso area, but they were not optimistic about their chances of capturing him.

‘Terrible Way to Die’

Williams said there is no evidence that Tostado physically restrained anyone to keep them away from the hole but he added: “Things were not pleasant. Anything could have happened in there. You could assume it was a terrible way to die.”

Tostado, who had a bruise on his left cheek but otherwise was physically unscathed, told Williams that the men banged on the walls of the boxcar, but no one heard them.

Tostado said the smugglers left a crowbar and two railroad spikes, apparently to help the aliens break through the boxcar’s floor in case they needed to escape. But without water and with only limited oxygen, they lacked the strength to break free.

With temperatures over 100 in El Paso on Wednesday, the men’s body heat soon raised the interior temperature of the insulated Missouri-Pacific boxcar to 120 degrees or more, Williams said.

Found Nearly Unconscious

Tostado and the dead men were found Thursday morning when Border Patrol agents made a routine check of the boxcar in Sierra Blanca, 75 miles southeast of El Paso. Tostado was found nearly unconscious, his face to the small opening he had made with the spike.

Authorities at an El Paso mortuary service have identified four of the victims and worked Friday to identify the rest. The names of the four were withheld until their relatives could be notified.

Williams said Border Patrol agents had arrested Tostado in El Paso on Wednesday and returned him to Mexico, but he managed to slip across hours later and join the 18 other aliens--seven of whom were from his home town of Pabellon de Arteaga in the central Mexican state of Aguascalientes, about 120 miles northeast of Guadalajara.

Paid Smugglers $400

Tostado, who has a wife and two children in Mexico, told reporters he paid the smugglers $400 to lead him to Dallas-Fort Worth, where he planned to work for a Mexican restaurant. He said he had worked at that restaurant until a year ago, when he returned to Mexico after four years in the United States.

No Plans to Return

Tostado said that when he leaves El Paso after the Border Patrol investigation into the deaths is over, he plans never to return.

“I’ve learned a hard lesson,” said Tostado, who added that he had entered the United States six times before Wednesday. “I plan to stay in my country. I don’t think I’ll do it again.”