Van With Migrants Crashes; 21 Hurt

A van loaded with 27 suspected illegal migrants overturned Friday trying to elude U.S. Border Patrol agents on State Route 905.

Twenty one people were hurt -- eight with life-threatening injuries -- when the driver swerved to avoid a spike strip laid down by agents, sending the vehicle tumbling down an embankment, said Maurice Luque, a spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

Such crashes have become common along the border as drivers of smuggling rings increasingly use reckless tactics to get migrants into the country.

Last year, a van going the wrong way on a mountain road to avoid a checkpoint rammed into another vehicle, killing five people.

To prevent accidents, agents in the San Diego area are not allowed to engage in high-speed pursuits. It is not clear if the van in Friday’s incident was being pursued, and the Border Patrol is investigating, said Agent Nicholas Coates, a spokesman.

The incident occurred after agents were tipped that smugglers were loading migrants into vehicles in a warehouse district near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. Agents encountered the van and two other vehicles.

The other vehicles were stopped, one after it struck a Border Patrol vehicle and another car, said Luque. About 60 migrants who were in the vehicles were apprehended, Coates said.