At least 12 people are dead and 12 are hospital after a Ford Expedition SUV collided with a semi truck in Imperial County, California near the US-Mexico border. At least 2 dozen people were inside the SUV at the time of the crash and the truck driver sustained moderate injuries. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out and who is at fault.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcsan ... 5z0-P0&amp

No matter who is at fault, the operator of the SUV, if not killed in the crash, will likely get a life sentence for that many people in the vehicle, one with a max legal capacity of 6 to 9 persons.

ltbewr wrote:

No matter who is at fault, the operator of the SUV, if not killed in the crash, will likely get a life sentence for that many people in the vehicle, one with a max legal capacity of 6 to 9 persons.

The SUV driver was actually killed in the crash.

Definitely a people smuggler driving like a maniac, probably with his lights off at dusk to avoid being seen. They got T-boned by the semi at that intersection as they probably ran that stop sign.

The driver got what he deserved.

ArchGuy1 wrote:

ltbewr wrote:

No matter who is at fault, the operator of the SUV, if not killed in the crash, will likely get a life sentence for that many people in the vehicle, one with a max legal capacity of 6 to 9 persons.

The SUV driver was actually killed in the crash.

He got lucky, I'd rather die in the crash than get one of those daft 100 year plus life sentences.

ltbewr wrote:

No matter who is at fault, the operator of the SUV, if not killed in the crash, will likely get a life sentence for that many people in the vehicle, one with a max legal capacity of 6 to 9 persons.

I owned that model truck before my current vehicle and I can't imagine how they got that many people in it.

Apparently this is harvest time in the area near the crash site, in particular carrots and only a few miles from the border with Mexico. Legal Americans won't do this work so this SUV was crammed with people despite for work, likely this part of a was a smuggling operation. The seats were removed to allow 3 times the legal number of persons inside it. It got t-boned by a tractor trailer with a tag trailer. The driver who was from Mexico was killed, all but one of the survivors had major injuries. Of course, the 'Conservatives' are blaming Pres. Biden for this, that if Trump was still President it wouldn't have happened. We need to put in a tax on farmers and farm goods to help pay for work permit programs, healthcare and other costs for governments to deal with the reality of the use of foreign national workers as well as limit exploitation.
https://www.aol.com/news/crash-kills-13 ... 53866.html

Just doing the cocktail napkin math, 25 people would overgross that Expedition by a lot.

Commuting farm workers or not, I'm curious why the Border Patrol would allow that to cross being so overloaded.

Famously wildly conservative Republican farmers hire these people and expect city tax payers to cover all the collateral costs. Right now California industrial farmers are viscously attacking Democrats because they are running out of heavily subsidized water and the state is not responding by creating more cheap or free water for them. On the other hand I like California produce, but lose political points because I also like and respect the people who do the work.

slider wrote:

Just doing the cocktail napkin math, 25 people would overgross that Expedition by a lot.

Commuting farm workers or not, I'm curious why the Border Patrol would allow that to cross being so overloaded.

Why would you assume it was allowed thru a designated border crossing? Seems more likely the vehicle was stateside already and used to pick up folks who crossed border on foot.

dragon6172 wrote:

slider wrote:

Just doing the cocktail napkin math, 25 people would overgross that Expedition by a lot.

Commuting farm workers or not, I'm curious why the Border Patrol would allow that to cross being so overloaded.

Why would you assume it was allowed thru a designated border crossing? Seems more likely the vehicle was stateside already and used to pick up folks who crossed border on foot.

Or people that were already here.

But what we do know is that the driver is a Mexican National, as were at least 10 of the deceased. The Highway Patrol, and Border Patrol will have to figure out what happened and how.


Highway Patrol:
Identify the victims
Understand the issues and fault in the accident.
Push charges were they should be.(Driver is dead, so this one is going to be tough).

Where they here on work permits?
Did the Truck Cross the border legally? If so, who is letting them through.
Who was hiring them, and did they have work permits?

dragon6172 wrote:

slider wrote:

Just doing the cocktail napkin math, 25 people would overgross that Expedition by a lot.

Commuting farm workers or not, I'm curious why the Border Patrol would allow that to cross being so overloaded.

Why would you assume it was allowed thru a designated border crossing? Seems more likely the vehicle was stateside already and used to pick up folks who crossed border on foot.

Per KTLA, "It’s harvest season in the area and Macario Mora, a spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection in Yuma and El Centro, believes the passengers of the SUV could have been migrant farmworkers"

The crash was 10 miles north of the border. There's a strong likelihood given what we know of such worker patterns. But that's what the investigation will reveal in time.

Why do people imagine the vehicle crossed the border? The routine is for migrant workers to cross the border during harvest time and live in "crash pads", houses that outside are normal (if crappy) single family residences gutted with 30 or 40 (or more) people sleeping in them. They are then picked up and dropped off at the fields to work for the day. This is done as cheaply as possible just like the house, and you get an overstuffed vehicle driving filled with humans. I doubt he was driving without lights if the time called for it, more than anything you want to avoid looking different or doing anything that on the outside is or looks illegal. And they drop of the workers at various fields to do their work then come back at the end of the day to take them back to the house. And at the end of the harvest time the workers return to Mexico (yes they actually return home) with their hard earned money that goes a long way to help their families.

And this doesn't just happen in California, a lot of places that use migrant labor for harvest have similar. Welcome to your food supply chain.

(And interestingly, the stronger border enforcement is, the less people will return home as getting back in is harder, so they stay and just send money back. In my opinion something like the bracero program needs to be reinstated for situations like harvest time and farm labor.)

Tugg

Tugger wrote:

And this doesn't just happen in California, a lot of places that use migrant labor for harvest have similar. Welcome to your food supply chain.

Indeed. Here in Canada we rely on migrant workers for almost all our farming work. We've also had similar incidents where car crashes have taken the lives of these men and women trying to scrape by.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ontario- ... -1.1159929

Tugger wrote:

Why do people imagine the vehicle crossed the border? The routine is for migrant workers to cross the border during harvest time and live in "crash pads", houses that outside are normal (if crappy) single family residences gutted with 30 or 40 (or more) people sleeping in them. They are then picked up and dropped off at the fields to work for the day. This is done as cheaply as possible just like the house, and you get an overstuffed vehicle driving filled with humans. I doubt he was driving without lights if the time called for it, more than anything you want to avoid looking different or doing anything that on the outside is or looks illegal. And they drop of the workers at various fields to do their work then come back at the end of the day to take them back to the house. And at the end of the harvest time the workers return to Mexico (yes they actually return home) with their hard earned money that goes a long way to help their families.

And this doesn't just happen in California, a lot of places that use migrant labor for harvest have similar. Welcome to your food supply chain.

(And interestingly, the stronger border enforcement is, the less people will return home as getting back in is harder, so they stay and just send money back. In my opinion something like the bracero program needs to be reinstated for situations like harvest time and farm labor.)

Tugg

I imagine we will find that the Truck and people were in the US already. I highly doubt Border Patrol would have let such a loaded Truck through. However that will be for the HP and BP to sort out.

slider wrote:

Per KTLA, "It’s harvest season in the area and Macario Mora, a spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection in Yuma and El Centro, believes the passengers of the SUV could have been migrant farmworkers"

The crash was 10 miles north of the border. There's a strong likelihood given what we know of such worker patterns. But that's what the investigation will reveal in time.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2 ... g-migrants

Imagine that....they weren't "allowed" thru a crossing by the border patrol as suggested

dragon6172 wrote:

slider wrote:

Per KTLA, "It’s harvest season in the area and Macario Mora, a spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection in Yuma and El Centro, believes the passengers of the SUV could have been migrant farmworkers"

The crash was 10 miles north of the border. There's a strong likelihood given what we know of such worker patterns. But that's what the investigation will reveal in time.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2 ... g-migrants

Imagine that....they weren't "allowed" thru a crossing by the border patrol as suggested

Yeah I read that. I was surpised though that it actually had crossed the actual boarder itself. That's a BIG hole in the fence!

Tugg

NIKV69 wrote:

I owned that model truck before my current vehicle and I can't imagine how they got that many people in it

Apparently you did not buy the Border Crossover XLT model.
From what I gather they removed all the seats except for the front for the driver so obviously no safety devices for the occupants.

The limited views from the accident scene the best I can tell they approached the highway from the dirt road to the semi's (lorry) right and failed to stop before entering the roadway.

Not looking good but wish the survivors the best. Really sad.

Okie

The other vehicle that crossed through the hole in the wall, caught fire soon after crossing. Mexico is sending their best and their brightest to this land of "systematic racism and oppression."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxCY4hdPcO8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpaD_sYyOwo