people who died

at least 9 suspected immigrants dead in crash

Aug. 7, 2008
Arizona Republic staff and wire reports.

Nine people died and another 10 were take to hospitals around the Valley and in Tucson after a single-car rollover wreck Thursday morning outside of Florence.
The GMC Suburban was traveling northbound on State Route 79 when it careened off the two-lane highway and flew over a nearby wash before coming to rest in the desert about 7:45 a.m. Thursday.
Images from a television helicopter show a crumpled white SUV alongside the road and what appears to be a row of bodies covered with tarps.
Two women were among the dead, and no children were in the vehicle, said Lt. Mike Corbin, a Department of Public Safety spokesman. One of the occupants was carrying a Guatemalan ID, he said.
The number of passengers squeezed into the SUV, and the route it was travelling, left authorities with the suspicion that the truck was smuggling illegal immigrants into the country.
“With that many people crammed into a vehicle, it's probably a human-smuggling organization,” Corbin said.
The highway that runs through Pinal County has become a popular trail for smugglers following stepped-up enforcement efforts on Interstate 10, Corbin said.
The wreck left both lanes of the rural highway closed for more than three hours as DPS officers and Border Patrol agents investigated the scene.
Border Patrol agents were called to the area, just north of the Tom Mix Memorial, at the request of DPS officials.
No police or border patrol vehicles were chasing the truck at the time of the wreck, but Corbin estimated the SUV was going at least 85 mph and said speed could be a factor in the fatal accident.
The truck was tagged with Sonora license plates and the Mexican Consulate in Arizona came to the scene to assist victims.
Helicopters flew the injured to trauma centers in Tucson and the Valley, though hospital representatives could not update the condition of the victims early Thursday afternoon.
Craig Fischer, a spokesman for Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, said the hospital received four survivors and will possibly receive additional patients later.
Judy Keane, a spokeswoman for Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, confirmed two survivors were treated there.
The highway re-opened shortly after noon Thursday.