Mexico Criticized for Detaining 2 Crash Victims

Family members of three friends involved in a fatal car crash in Baja California over the weekend criticized Mexican authorities Monday for detaining those injured and demanding high bail amounts for their release.

The crash again triggered warnings about the dangers that Americans face when they cross the border, an issue that last flared in August when the family of an injured San Diego County man had to pay $7,000 before he could be transferred to a U.S. hospital, where he died.

On Saturday, Keith Takabayashi, 31, apparently fell asleep at the wheel of a friend’s Jeep Cherokee and rolled it about 12:30 a.m. near Rosarito Beach, killing himself and injuring his two passengers.

Authorities refused to release critically injured Kevin Lewand, 30, an underwater biologist with the San Francisco Aquarium and one of the passengers, for nearly a day until his parents arrived with $11,000 bail. The other passenger, Barry Walshe, 31, a commercial real estate broker from Newport Beach, was hospitalized and then jailed for six hours before being released Monday morning.

Mexican law requires foreigners to post a bond before they can leave the country if they have been involved in a traffic accident that is considered potentially criminal.

Lewand’s father, Kevin Lewand Sr., a Tustin lawyer, said his son has a broken pelvis, cracked ribs, a bruised lung, massive bruises and a skinned head. The younger Lewand underwent surgery at Scripps Mercy Hospital on Sunday and again Monday and was in guarded condition.

Mexican authorities, the elder Lewand said, “need to clean up their abusive process.”

“There is no way to protect yourself except not to be there,” the elder Lewand said. “Mexico is a beautiful place, but unless they can bring their police and prosecutors under control, Americans will have no protection.”

At a news conference in San Diego on Monday, Walshe said the experience “was very frustrating. I was screaming to be left in the hospital, but they said I wasn’t hurt bad enough. So I was taken to jail, with a cement floor, open toilet and flies.”

Takabayashi’s father, however, was not so critical. The three friends went to Mexico at their own risk, said Glenn Takabayashi of Santa Ana.

The three men have been friends since attending Foothill High School in Santa Ana. They and another friend went to the Lewands’ house near Rosarito Beach for a weekend get-together, something they’ve done many times over the years.

The three decided to return late Saturday night. Takabayashi, who worked in quality control at a restaurant, is believed to have dozed off while driving home, his father said. Walshe said he and Lewand were asleep and that only he had a seat belt on. The other two were thrown from the vehicle when it rolled.

According to Takabayashi’s father, who talked with Walshe, Takabayashi was tired but had taken the wheel because “he wasn’t planning to do much drinking.”

A report released Tuesday by the Baja California attorney general’s office said Lewand and Walshe were detained after the accident so police could determine who was driving. The two men were put in police custody at 7:20 a.m. Saturday.

Lewand, who was unconscious, was first transported to the Red Cross hospital in Rosarito, where Dr. Norma G. Arellano Becerril told homicide investigators that he smelled of alcohol, the police report said. The report also said police did not conduct tests to determine the blood alcohol levels of the two men.

Though Walshe told police that Takabayashi had been driving, the report said investigators were unable to determine who the driver was.

In a similar case, the family of Donald Kraft, 44, an unemployed truck driver involved in a two-car collision on Aug. 24, had to pay $7,000 before Mexican authorities would release him to his family. Kraft, who was paralyzed by the crash, died of pneumonia on Sept. 6.

Kraft’s family alleged that the other driver, Antonio Garcia Sanchez, a Baja California human rights official, demanded a bribe before he would permit Kraft to be airlifted to a San Diego hospital. Garcia denied the allegations.

Kraft’s brother, Donald, said bitterly Monday that the latest incident shows that “nothing has changed in Mexico except they’ve upped the ante.” After that incident, San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn called for billboards to be posted on U.S. roads leading to Mexico, warning Americans that they leave the United States at their own risk. Horn said he still is pursuing the effort.

“Our goal is to change the protocol they have in Baja, so that medical procedures would come first,” Horn said. “We know that the first hour of medical treatment is critical, and Kevin Lewand sat [in Mexico] for 20 hours before he was transferred.”

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Times staff writer H.G. Reza contributed to this report.