A Desperate Dash
The level of desperation felt by many illegal immigrants to the United States was poignantly captured by Times photographer Don Bartletti last Thursday afternoon.
While on an assignment just north of the border, Bartletti saw a man walking in a ditch alongside Interstate 805.
Two U. S. Border Patrol vans were nearby, apparently in pursuit. To escape arrest, the man bolted onto the freeway into the path of three cars, seemingly without looking.
The man narrowly missed being hit, just a few yards north of a sign warning motorists to watch for pedestrians--a sign that may have saved his life.
Dozens of others, especially at night, have not been so lucky in recent years.
Sadly, this scene seems bound to be repeated as long as desperate people, the Border Patrol and high-speed traffic mix so dangerously in the South Bay.
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