10 people have been killed while 20 have been injured when an overloaded and over-speeding van hit a metal pole and stop sign on a remote South Texas highway.
The spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety Nathan Brandley said the crash happened shortly after 4 pm local time in Encino, about 80 kilometers north of Texas’ border city McAllen.
Brandley said 30 people were on board, but the van had only been designed to carry 15 passengers.
He said the vehicle lost control around a curve on Highway 281. The driver and nine passengers were pronounced dead at the scene while the remainder of the group were transported to local medical facilities.
The spokesperson said all the injured were in serious or critical conditions.
Brooks County Sheriff Urbino Martinez said he believed most of the passengers were migrants. Martinez said a surge in cross-border illegal migrants has resulted in a rise in the number of crashes involving vehicles jammed with migrants in recent years.
Earlier in March, 13 migrants died during a similar incident in southern California when their vehicle collided with a truck. Later, federal prosecutors charged a 47-year-old US resident for transporting unauthorized individuals into the country.
