Tucson Region

Speeding truck carried 20-plus illegal entrants

SIERRA VISTA - Federal agents Sunday arrested a man and a teenager they identified as people smugglers involved in Saturday's horrific crash that left five dead and 25 injured near this city. The crash, involving a Ford pickup truck carrying more than 20 illegal entrants and hitting speeds of up to 100 mph in an attempt to elude authorities, killed two residents of Huachuca City, James Lee, 75, and Emilia Guthrie, 71. They were in the last car the truck rolled on top of in the crash near the east gate of Fort Huachuca shortly before noon. The crash left a trail of crumpled vehicles along the road. The dead and injured were scattered across the highway in a scene that shocked many emergency workers. Three illegal entrants in the truck were also killed. They were identified Sunday night as Maria Hernandez Espinosa, Mauro Macedal Hernandez and Eric Sanchez Dominguez, all from Mexico. Police do not know how old they were or where in Mexico they came from. Police originally said the crash, 60 miles southeast of Tucson, killed six people, but they lowered the death toll Sunday. They identified the man and teenager in custody as being part of a three-member team of smugglers in the truck. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were questioning the suspected "navigator," identified as Carlos Cortez, 29, of Mexico, who was admitted for injuries to University Medical Center, said Officer Frank Valenzuela, a Department of Public Safety spokesman. The same agents were questioning a minor, identified as Juan Ortega, 16, also of Mexico, who they believe was the group's guide. Charges against the two were pending Sunday. Valenzuela said officials did not know whether the driver of the truck escaped or was among the injured in the hospitals. "We're not sure at this point if we have the driver," he said. Eighteen Mexican nationals were treated at area hospitals Saturday and seven U.S. residents were treated and released from the Sierra Vista hospital, Valenzuela said. The injured included three Tucsonans. Victims told authorities a second black pickup truck with about the same number of illegal entrants had been traveling with the pickup truck that crashed, he said. The catastrophic incident began about 11:30 a.m. when Cochise County Sheriff's Department deputies saw the white pickup truck come onto Arizona 92 from Ash Canyon south of Sierra Vista, said Carol Capas, a sheriff's spokeswoman. The truck nearly caused a crash at an intersection and then started to speed up. The deputy dropped off the chase when the truck approached 100 mph, she said. Within a few minutes, the driver reached Arizona 90 at Buffalo Soldier Trail in front of the east gate to Fort Huachuca, one of the busiest intersections in Sierra Vista. There, witnesses told police, it looked like the driver aimed the truck at officers on the side of the road, Valenzuela said. Those officers had deployed a spike strip - meant to deflate a vehicle's tires - before the intersection, he said, and the driver may have been trying to avoid running over the spikes. When the driver swerved left, the truck went out of control, skidded sideways, crashed over the median and vaulted onto one of nine vehicles that were waiting in a line to turn left from the southbound lane onto the Arizona 90 bypass. The truck crashed on top of the first car, then crashed into the next eight in line before it finally stopped, he said. The truck did not drive over the spike strip officers had deployed, he said. Its only flat tire came from hitting the median, he said. Officials with state and local agencies declined to discuss Sierra Vista police's attempt to use the tire spikes so close to a busy intersection. A Sierra Vista police dispatcher said the agency's spokesman was out of town, and any questions would be answered by DPS or by police officials this morning. Capas said the Sheriff's Office has a specific policy "to use caution in any type of populated area" when it comes to deploying tire spikes, though each case is different. Shortly before the crash, Cochise deputies had deployed a spike strip on Buffalo Soldier Trail but then pulled it off the road because the driver was driving so erratically, she said. State police have not been asked to conduct an administrative investigation into the use of the spikes, Valenzuela said. He said the crash was likely caused by the truck's high speed. The truck was moving at about 90 mph when it hit the intersection where the crash occurred. Valenzuela said officers didn't have enough time to try to clear the intersection of vehicles before the fleeing truck arrived. Charles Cravens said when he arrived on the scene with his contingent of volunteer Arizona Rangers, the vehicles involved in the crash were "so badly mangled up it was truly amazing there was no fire, no explosions."