5 people died when an SUV smuggling migrants across the border crashed in a high-speed chase with police
- Five people died and several others were injured when an SUV crashed during a high-speed chase in Big Wells, Texas.
- The car was reportedly smuggling migrants across the Mexican border into the US.
- Hundreds of migrants die every year while being smuggled into the US from Central America.
Five people died and several others were injured on Sunday when an SUV with 14 passengers believed to be smuggling migrants across the Mexican border into the US crashed and flipped during a high-speed chase with law enforcement.
The crash happened in Big Wells, Texas, a small town about 70 miles from the Mexican border. The car flipped over and ejected several passengers while trying to flee law enforcement officers, speeding at approximately 100 miles an hour.
Four people were pronounced dead at the scene, an additional passenger died at the hospital, and others remain in stable to critical condition, according to the Dimmit County Sheriff's Office. Police found several foreign passports in the vehicle, leading them to believe the passengers were being illegally smuggled.
The sheriff told The New York Times that his office is working with federal authorities to charge the driver and another person in the car, who are both still alive, for the crash and for smuggling.
Every year, around 250 to 500 people who enlist the help of professional smugglers to get them from Central America into the US die during the dangerous journey across the border.
In both 2012 and 2015, similarly fatal accidents have occurred in Texas in which vans dangerously overloaded with migrant passengers crashed, killing and injuring multiple people.