Driver of Van That Killed 5 Says He Was Forced to Speed

A 16-year-old illegal immigrant charged with murder claims that the accident that killed five people in Temecula this week was caused by smugglers who forced him to drive recklessly through a residential neighborhood, Mexican consulate officials said Friday.

Speaking after a hearing in which the teen-age Mexican national denied five counts of second-degree murder, an administrative officer of the Mexican consul in San Bernardino said the youth admitted that he was driving the stolen Chevrolet Suburban at the time of the accident but that he wanted to stop.

“The other man didn’t allow him to stop the van. Rather he was pushing down on his foot on the accelerator,” said Luis Sanchez of the Mexican consul, who identified the smuggler as “Flores.”

Investigators confirmed that one of the 11 passengers in the Suburban was another smuggling suspect named Alfredo Flores Tapia, 27, who has a record of immigrant smuggling and other crimes.

Sanchez said Flores was going to pay the youth an undisclosed amount of money for driving the van, loaded with illegal immigrants. Minors are often used in smuggling to avoid the harsher criminal penalties assessed to adults.

But Riverside County Supervising Dist. Atty. Craig Datig on Friday entered a motion in Riverside Juvenile Court to have the teen-ager tried as an adult. A hearing on that request will be held June 25.

The 16-year-old allegedly fled from Border Patrol agents on Tuesday while driving the Suburban carrying 11 other suspected illegal immigrants. Police say the vehicle ran a red light at an intersection near Temecula Valley High School, crashing into a smaller car, tearing it in half and killing the three occupants.

The van then flipped and skidded up to a sidewalk, killing two students on their way to school.