MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A truck carrying a group of migrants crashed into a trailer after evading a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) checkpoint in the town of Encinal, Texas, on Thursday, leaving four dead and three hospitalized, Mexican authorities said.
The crash occurred just days after the deadliest human smuggling incident on record in the United States left 53 migrants dead in an abandoned trailer truck on the edge of San Antonio.
Two Mexican men, one Guatemalan and another unidentified person died in Thursday’s crash, the Mexican consulate in the Texan border city of Laredo said in a statement.
The driver, a U.S. citizen, was hospitalized along with two people thought to be from Guatemala, according to information from the consulate, Mexico’s Interior Ministry and the National Institute of Migration (INM).
The truck had left from Laredo and was headed to San Antonio, the ministry and INM said in a joint statement.
On Monday, dozens of migrants died after being trapped in a sweltering tractor-trailer found abandoned on the outskirts of San Antonio. Authorities believe the truck had also passed CBP surveillance cameras in Encinal undetected.
Four people have been arrested over Monday’s tragedy, including the suspected driver, who a lawmaker said was under the influence of methamphetamine when found by police.
(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz and Kylie Madry; Editing by Leslie Adler)
