By Cliff Pinckard
Advance Ohio Media
BIG WELLS, Texas — An SUV packed with undocumented immigrants crashed Sunday during a high-speed chase with border-control agents and a sheriff’s deputy, killing five people and injuring several others.
Dimmit County Sheriff Marion Boyd says 12 people were ejected from the SUV when it flipped during the chase, CNN reports. There were 14 people in the vehicle.
Four people were pronounced dead at the scene near Highway 85 about 100 miles southwest of San Antonio, ABC News reports. A fifth person died at a hospital.
The driver, a suspected smuggler and also believed to be a U.S. citizen, survived the crash, according to NBC News.
The crash occurred at about noon during a chase that reached speeds of 100 mph, reports say.
The chase started when a border control agent spotted three vehicles traveling together and became suspicious of smuggling. Two of the vehicles stopped for authorities, but the third vehicle tried to escape from authorities.
“This is not unusual, absolutely not,” Boyd says, according to ABC News. “We’ve seen this many many times, not only in this county but in other counties along the border. It’s a problem. This is, I think, a perfect example of why our borders need to be secure. It endangers American lives as well as those people from Mexico and other countries coming here for whatever reasons they are coming.”
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