Alien Killed on Freeway South of Checkpoint : Immigration: A Mexican man, 80, became the 12th alien struck and killed while trying to avoid Border Patrol.

An 80-year-old immigrant from Mexico, whose son had told him to run across Interstate 5 to evade an immigration checkpoint, was struck by a truck and killed, the California Highway Patrol said Sunday.

Custodio Aguilar, who was en route to Palmdale, was killed Saturday night as he and two relatives tried to cross the freeway about 2 1/2 miles south of the U.S. Border Patrol’s immigration checkpoint. Aguilar’s son, Jose Aguilar of Palmdale, who was driving them, had become nervous and told them to cross the freeway to the southbound side, where he would pick them up, a CHP spokeswoman in Oceanside said.

Ironically, the immigration checkpoint was closed at the time.

Aguilar was the 12th immigrant killed by vehicles this year near the checkpoint just south of the Orange County line.

The CHP said the younger Aguilar told investigators that he had paid smugglers to bring his three relatives north from Mexico. Under the arrangement, the smugglers agreed to transport the three only to the Aliso Creek rest area on the northbound side of Interstate 5.

The son picked up all three and drove north. But as he got within a few miles of the checkpoint, he thought it was open and that his relatives might be caught.

The CHP said Aguilar dropped his passengers off on the freeway’s northbound shoulder, and told them to cross the freeway. He would travel north, turn around, and return to get them on the southbound side. From there, he would drive them to a rest area, where the four would wait until the checkpoint closed.

The senior Aguilar’s niece, Patricia, succeeded in making her way across both northbound and southbound lanes. A third relative, Ricardo Jimenez Lopez, 26, tried to help the elderly Aguilar to safety after Aguilar was hit by the truck. But as Jimenez tugged at Aguilar, pulling him towards the right-hand shoulder of the southbound lanes, a car struck Jimenez in the leg.

Jimenez was taken by paramedics to a local hospital for treatment of a broken leg and a broken foot.

No one in the truck that struck the elderly man was injured.

Officials estimate that 33 pedestrians have been killed near the checkpoint since 1987. But it was after the death of an 8-year-old Mexican boy who was struck and killed Aug. 8, that several immigrant rights’ activists in Orange and San Diego counties took up the issue and lobbied for slower speeds near the inspection point.

Lilia Powell, vice chairwoman of the Orange County Coalition for Immigrant Rights & Responsibilities, said Sunday that the latest death “just brings urgency to the matter even more. Although we’re working closely with Caltrans and they’re doing their best to educate motorists, we have to do more.”

Coalition members already have sought a speed limit of 45 m.p.h. near the checkpoint. Caltrans officials say the average speed through the zone is 72 m.p.h. They also backed a suggestion to insert perpendicular grooves in the roadway near the area. The grooves create a buzzing sound as drivers pass over them, prompting them to slow down.

“We need to get Mexico involved somehow,” Powell added. “Perhaps by posting or distributing flyers at the rest areas near where people cross these freeways, or through the Catholic Church.”

Last week, the Orange County Human Relations Commission voted to participate in discussions being conducted by Robert A. Emry, who is working for Caltrans to resolve the issue. Emry also is associate dean of the School of Communications at Cal State Fullerton.

“Our commission went on record because our concerns are of a humanitarian nature for individuals who are running up (from Mexico) and being killed,” commission spokesman Russell Kennedy said Sunday. “Sometimes they’re traveling north to spend the holidays with their families. And we also wanted to get involved because it poses a tremendous traffic problem.”

Kennedy said commission members favor the recommendations of Powell’s coalition, in addition to brightly lit freeway signs warning of pedestrians crossing the freeway. Only one sign now exists on the shoulder of the northbound lanes.