Posted on 12/09/2021 7:19:10 PM PST by BenLurkin
A cargo truck jammed with people who appeared to be Central American migrants rolled over and crashed into a pedestrian bridge over on a highway in southern Mexico on Thursday, killing at least 49 people and injuring nearly five dozen others, authorities reported.
Luis Manuel Moreno, the head of the Chiapas state civil defense office, said a preliminary estimate listed 49 dead and 58 injured. He said about 21 of the injured had serious wounds and were taken to local hospitals.
The crash occurred on a highway leading toward the Chiapas state capital. Photos from the scene showed victims strewn across the pavement and inside the truck’s freight compartment.
Later, rescue workers arranged the dead in rows of white sheets, side by side, on the asphalt.
Moreno said that it appeared that speed and the weight of the truck’s human cargo may have caused it to tip over, and that as the vehicle toppled over it hit the base of a steel pedestrian bridge. There was a curve in the road near the accident scene that may have contributed to the crash.
That meant at least 107 people were crowed into the vehicle. It is not unusual for freight trucks in Mexico to be carrying so many people in migrant-smuggling operations in southern Mexico.
Rescue workers who first arrived at the scene and who were not authorized to be quoted by name said that even more migrants had been aboard the truck when it crashed and had fled for fear of being detained by immigration agents.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
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