Heat sends 14 to area hospitals

WFAA-TV ^ | July 27, 2002 | Staff Reports

[Brownie74]

Heat sends 14 to area hospitals
07/27/2002

From Staff Reports

About 14 people were transported to area hospitals Saturday with varying degrees of heat exhaustion after traveling to Dallas from Santa Fe, N.M., in the back of an 18-wheeler truck, police said.

The vehicle pulled into Love’s truck stop at Polk Street and Interstate 20 Saturday afternoon, and about 40 people came out the back doors of the truck, said Dallas police Sgt. Steve Winters.

Police captured about 20 people; more than 10 fled behind a house in the Red Bird area, he said.

Dallas Fire-Rescue drove 14 people to four hospitals - Charleton Methodist Medical Center, Methodist Medical Center, Parkland Memorial Hospital and Dallas Southwest Medical Center - with heat exhaustion and possible heat stroke, said Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Lt. Doug Dickerson.

[Brownie74]

Not much on this story yet. I just saw it on WFAA-TV 6 o'clock news. There should be more later.

Expect more smuggling like this when Bush allows Mexican trucks into the United States

[Brownie74]

PING. Help me watch for more on this Meek.

[Brownie74]

More information just in.

Heat kills immigrants in truck.

[Tancredo Fan]

Thanks for the ping. This sort of thing can be blamed directly on the Mexican government, blowhards like Dick Gephardt, and those who bandy around unpopular ideas such as granting amnesty to millions of these criminal invaders, or those who give them the impression that they are home free once they have snuck in. The media usually spins these things in a tear-jerking manner to try to get sympathy from Americans who are plum fed up with this third-world invasion. That's disgraceful. Put the military on the borders.

[dennisw]

lovely!

[dennisw]

LOL! The po-lice couln't even find the tractor trailer that let them off!

[4America]

Expect more smuggling like this when Bush allows Mexican trucks into the United States


I agree. This is only the beginning.
BUMP!

[Brownie74]

You have no idea of the amount of trailers that are delivered into the US everyday by Mexican drivers that are then picked up by American drivers to be delivered all over the US.

I know - I used to pick up trailers in Laredo to be delivered to General Motors in Michigan. Then I would pick up a trailer there and drag it back to Laredo to be taken across the Mexican border by a Mexican driver.

We never knew what was really in those trailers. My paperwork may say that I was hauling engine blocks but I never knew what else may be in the trailer because they had ICC seals on them and we were not allowed to break the seals.

Not once was I ever stopped and questioned. There were so many of our rigs going through the inspection point 12 miles north of Laredo that the guards just waved us through.

I am not suggesting that we possibly could have been carrying human cargo back there but there could have been drugs or worse in those trailers. Who knows what goes on at DRDC. (Detroit Regional Distribution Center)

And Bush want to turn these Mexican trucks and truckers loose on American roads. This is going to one big fiasco. Mark my words.

[4America]

And Bush want to turn these Mexican trucks and truckers loose on American roads. This is going to one big fiasco. Mark my words.

---

I agree. Saying that these ar e very interesting times, is an understatement.

[FITZ]

They arrested the drivers. They were from El Paso but it's not known yet if they knew about the people being transported.

[FITZ]

Didn't President Fox promise to improve conditions in Mexico so all it's people don't have to leave?

[FITZ]

Here is more on the story:

2 immigrants die in truck trailer; El Paso drivers held

Jim Conley
El Paso Times
Two truck drivers from El Paso were arrested Saturday north of Dallas after two undocumented immigrants were found dead, possibly of heat stroke, in the trailer of an 18-wheeler, the Texas Department of Public Safety reported.

An additional 15 people were hospitalized after riding for hours in stifling heat in the truck, which was marked Boyd Logistics Inc. of El Paso, officials said.

"They said it was 12 hours from the last time they actually saw the daylight," said Alberto Castillo, who lives near a Dallas truck stop where about 40 undocumented immigrants got out of the trailer before it headed north.

The truck was believed to have come from Santa Fe and to have spent Friday night at an El Paso truck stop, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger said.

He said those arrested were Troy Dock, 30, and Jason Sprague, no age available, both of El Paso. Charges were pending.

"Whether the driver knew (the immigrants) were there is still under investigation," Vinger said.

Keith Boyd, president of Boyd Logistics, 13000 Gateway East, said the company is cooperating with authorities to determine what occurred.

"Our hearts go out to the families of the individuals who have been affected by this tragedy," Boyd said in a written statement.

The Associated Press reported that about 15 of the immigrants were hospitalized Saturday for heat exhaustion. The names and hometowns of the dead and injured weren't available.

[dennisw]

Thanks and bump!!

[Brownie74]

Thanks for the update FITZ. I haven't been able to follow this story as much as I would like but I occasionally catch bits and pieces of it on Dallas TV.

Unfortunately this is yet another cottage industry that has sprung up as a result of our neglected borders.

Thanks again.