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One dies, 30 hurt as van rolls on I-10 offramp
DAVID L. TEIBEL and
CARLI BROSSEAU http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/81853.php Law enforcement officials said at least one person died Monday when a van carrying more than 30 illegal immigrant suspects rolled on an Interstate 10 offramp. Border Patrol agents found the overturned van about 5 a.m. at the westbound Empirita offramp, about 10 miles west of Benson, Department of Public Safety spokesman Officer Quentin Mehr said. The van, transporting primarily Guatemalans and Ecuadorians, had been spotted minutes before the crash by Border Patrol, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Vincent Picard. A woman found dead at the scene has yet to be identified, Mehr said. The other 30 or so were taken to five local hospitals, Picard said, and there was one confirmed case of chicken pox. Two Mexicans were referred to the U.S. Attorney's Office for prosecution, Picard said. They were in Border Patrol custody, according to Mehr. A number of passengers were seen running from the rolled vehicle, Mehr said. A DPS helicopter and a U.S. Border Patrol aircraft flew patrol over the area and helped agents on the ground find at least three people who had fled into the desert. The westbound Empirita offramp was closed during the investigation. The interstate's westbound lanes remained open, Mehr said.
Van rollover swamps Kino ER; UMC trauma center left 'busy'http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/crime/81874.php
Four hospitals in Tucson and one in Phoenix were needed Monday to treat
what is believed to be the largest number of suspected illegal immigrants
injured in a single crash or rollover in southern Arizona, according to
Citizen archives.
Thirty people were injured and one woman was killed Monday morning when a
van rolled near an Interstate 10 offramp about 10 miles west of Benson.
One patient, who was one of 11 initially taken to University Physicians
Hospital at Kino Campus, was flown to Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center
in Phoenix because he needed trauma care and no trauma beds were available
at University Medical Center, said Dr. Mazda Shirazi, medical director for
Kino's emergency and urgent care departments. Southern Arizona's only
Level 1 trauma center is at UMC.
"We are in a bed shortage situation at all times in Tucson, Arizona," he
said.
With 21 emergency room beds and five urgent-care beds at UPH, 11 new
patients at the same time "overwhelmed us," Shirazi said.
The 5 a.m. crash on the Empirita Road offramp forced patients in hospital
waiting rooms across Tucson to wait even longer and tested the limits of
Tucson hospitals.
"Can Tucson absorb it?" Shirazi asked. "It depends on the time of the day,
day of the week. If this would have happened 1 1/2 months ago in the surge
of the flu epidemic, it would have been much harder to absorb than today."
Five passengers were taken by helicopter to UMC, with another arriving by
ambulance. Eleven ambulances took patients to UPH, while another 13 of the
van's passengers were taken to Tucson Medical Center and St. Joseph's
Medical Center by ambulance or by the U.S. Border Patrol.
Two of UPH's patients needed specialty care that was not available at the
hospital. UMC took one of those patients, said spokeswoman Katie Riley.
Shirazi did not know where the other patient would be transported.
Shirazi said UPH received the brunt of the patients because they were the
closest hospital to the scene by ambulance. A doctor was called in to open
UPH's urgent care unit early, but the doctor ended up stuck in the traffic
snag caused by the crash.
Riley said UMC called doctors and staff members scheduled to start at 11
a.m. to come in early and treat the six trauma patients taken to the UMC
emergency department.
Riley said the trauma staff was busy but got to each patient quickly. She
said elective surgeries were not canceled for the day, one of UMC's
options when surgeons are swamped with trauma patients.
Of the six who were taken to UMC, she said two were in critical condition,
two in serious condition, one in fair condition and the other in good
condition.
Of the four patients taken to St. Joseph's, Carondelet spokeswoman Lisa
Contreras said all were in stable and good condition. The nine patients
taken to TMC had minor injuries, spokesman Mike Letson said.
"As emergency physicians, we're always ready to see patients," Shirazi
said. "The issue comes when there's not enough beds or facilities."
In addition to the injuries the van passengers sustained, one patient at
UPH was placed in isolation because he had the chicken pox, Shirazi said.
DPS officers try to determine reasons for fatal van crash
State Department of Public Safety investigators were trying to learn
Tuesday what caused a van carrying more than 30 suspected illegal entrants
to overturn Monday, killing one of the passengers.
Investigators will examine the van, its tires and the roadway and will do
calculations aimed at giving them an estimate of the van's speed, said DPS
Officer Quentin Mehr, a department spokesman.
Interviews with survivors already have begun, Mehr said.
"When you put all of that together you can come up with a pretty good idea
of what happened," said Mehr, who also is a trained collision
reconstructionist.
He said 30 people were taken to hospitals after the 5 a.m. crash, one was
turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol and a woman was found dead at the
scene.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Vincent Picard said the
woman killed was from Guatemala. Her name was unavailable Tuesday.
According to Picard, 20 of those in the van were from Guatemala, eight
were from Ecuador, one was from El Salvador and two were from Mexico. One
Mexican was the driver, and the other was the guide, he said.
The U.S. Attorney's Office was investigating the case against the two, the
office's spokeswoman Sandy Raynor said. No charges had been filed Tuesday,
and no names were released.
Picard said "several" of the van's passengers will remain in the country
as material witnesses and others will be sent back to their home country.
Estimates on how many were in each category were not available.
The preliminary account of the chain of events that led to the rollover
began with Border Patrol agents stopping another vehicle along Interstate
10 near the Empirita offramp.
While dealing with that, Mehr said, agents spotted the van drive by and
for some reason thought it looked suspicious.
They later went looking for the van and found it wrecked on the
interstate's westbound Empirita offramp, about 10 miles west of Benson, he
said.
Supervisory Agent Jesus Rodriguez said agents had not been pursuing the
van. "Not even close," he said.
The Border Patrol did help locate some of the van's passengers who ran
from authorities after the rollover, he said. At least three of those who
ran were caught, Mehr said.
The agents who found the van were among the dozens of first responders who
worked on the collision and helped the survivors, Mehr said.
He said the agencies at the wreck site included his own, the Border
Patrol, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tucson Fire Department,
Rural/Metro Fire Department and Southwest Ambulance.
Also, it's possible workers from those agencies came in contact with a
person infected with chicken pox, he said.
One of the van's occupants at first was thought to have measles but later
was diagnosed with chicken pox, Mehr said.
Mehr, who was one of the officers sent to the scene, said he knew of no
health advice given out regarding possible exposure to chicken pox.
Well, Let's see. A VAN, Jammed FULL with 31 INVADERS from a Hostile country, Wrecks on OUR Highway and Cost the USA Taxpayer, probably in excess of 3 Million Dollars. Clear enough..
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