(All Times local)
CARRIED AWAY: Unconfirmed reports from local media in Mexico put the death toll at nearly 50, with around 20 injured in the crash involving a truck that was carrying migrants en route to the U.S. From a report in Mexico’s Noticias Televisa:
“The vehicle was carrying around 90 migrants on the highway, leaving from Zacatecas. It had stopped to get its roof repaired when, a few kilometers from Oaxaca, it experienced a tire blowout and then another. The total in fatalities is close to 50, with about a dozen injured.”
Video images of the incident shows a truck strewn with detritus. At least eight of the bodies, all of whom appear to be men, are covered in blankets. The charred skeletal remains of three bodies are seen by the side of the road and a hole in the roof of the truck appears to be the source of the blaze.
The website Accidental, a news service run by the government of Mexico’s state of Chiapas, said the accident was on a rural stretch of the highway in the Sinaloa state when it collided with a tractor trailer. An unspecified number of immigrants were on the truck, called “Migrant” by the survivors, along with the tractor trailer driver. The truck was transporting migrants trying to reach the U.S.
Accidental reported that some of the migrants have been taken to the hospital by police but noted that it’s unknown if the survivors suffered any burns.