2 Immigrants Die in Attempt to Cross I-5

Vehicles struck and killed two pedestrians--both believed to have been undocumented immigrants--in separate weekend incidents along the stretch of Interstate 5 just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, authorities said Saturday.

Both casualties were struck by hit-and-run vehicles, officials said, but one victim was later run over by a motorcyclist--who was also injured in the collision.

The two dead men were believed to be the first immigrant pedestrians killed along Interstate 5 in 1991.

Both were struck along a corridor of I-5 where, in recent years, scores of border-jumpers have been killed as they tried to negotiate the fast-moving freeway on foot.

On Saturday, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s office, a hit-and-run vehicle struck an unidentified Latino man about 6:25 p.m. along southbound I-5 just north of Dairy Mart Road. A motorcycle then ran over the victim, said Chuck Bolton, an investigator for the medical examiner’s office. The motorcyclist was hurt and hospitalized, Bolton said, but no information was immediately available about the cyclist’s condition.

The other pedestrian was killed on Friday about 8:45 p.m., according to the California Highway Patrol, which is investigating both deaths.

In Friday’s incident, the CHP said, a hit-and-run vehicle traveling about 80 m.p.h. struck and killed a 15-year-old as he tried to run across I-5 just north of Via de San Ysidro, about a half-mile north of the border. The vehicle, believed to be a passenger sedan, continued on toward Mexico, authorities said.

The Medical Examiner’s office identified the dead youth in Friday’s incident as Joel Bravo Gonzalez, a Guatemalan.

Interstate 5 and other major California thoroughfares converge near the border, forming a barrier for the constant influx of illegal aliens from the south. Many recent arrivals from Tijuana gravitate to I-5 to find rides north and avoid arrest by U.S. immigration agents, who often can be evaded amid the confusion and danger of fast-moving freeway traffic.

Since 1987, according to the California Highway Patrol, vehicles in the border area--mostly along I-5--have struck and killed at least 89 immigrants, including the latest 2 victims, and injured 71 others. Also since 1987, vehicles have struck at least 65 other immigrant pedestrians, killing 40 of them, as they tried to negotiate the freeway near the Border Patrol checkpoint along I-5 at San Onofre, some 75 miles north of the border.