no one deserves this
DESCRIPTION
Delving into a tragic immigrant wreck.TRANSCRIPT
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167TH YEAR NO. 78, 20 PAGES, ©2012, VICTORIA ADVOCATE PUBLISHING CO.
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‘NO ONEDESERVES THIS’
FATALITIES STIRIMMIGRATIONREFORM TALKSBY MELISSA [email protected]
While driving home from Houston onMonday, Benny Martinez made up his mindto visit the scene and retrace the tragedythat happened 3 miles south of his home-town.
He wanted to pay respectto the 14 immigrants fromGuatemala, Honduras andMexico, victims of circum-stance trying to cross intoTexas on Sunday.
“I feel so sorry for the peo-ple, they come here to bet-ter their lives,” he said.“They came here and died.”
The image ran back and forth in his mindas he tried to find an answer through theemotions and limited details he had: Thetread came off the tire, the truck hit thetree.
“I just want to see where it was,” Martinezsaid. “I’m thinking out loud, I’d like to seehow he went off the road, could he havemissed the tree? I don’t know ... They diedon impact. Why were there so many in thetruck?”
� DEATH TOLL RISES TO 14 � VICTIMS IDENTIFIED AS IMMIGRANTS FROM GUATEMALA, HONDURAS AND MEXICO
State, localpoliticiansreact todeaths ofimmigrants,A5
To see video from the scene of the wreck,go to VictoriaAdvocate.com and click onthe story.
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SEE IMMIGRATION, A5
ANGELI WRIGHT/[email protected]
COULD TAKEWEEKS TO IDALL VICTIMSBY JENNIFER [email protected]
GOLIAD – At The Tote convenience storeon U.S. Highway 59, known colloquially asthe Goliad Walmart and the “town hub,” Ko-ri Gonzalez cashes out two customers.
Since 5 a.m. Monday, Gonzalez said shop-pers were abuzz with questions about Sun-day’s one-vehicle wreck that killed 14 peopleand injured nine on the same highway abouteight miles away.
“We’re the midway point between Laredoand Houston, sowe get a lot of peo-ple who stop here.Most people wantto know how therewere so many peo-ple in that one ve-hicle,” said Gonza-lez, a Goliad na-tive. “The peoplewho live aroundhere though aren’treally surprised byit.”
Gregory Pal-more, of the Officeof Public Affairs – U.S. Immigration andCustoms Enforcement, confirmed Mondaythat all 23 passengers in the 2000 Ford F-250truck originated from Guatemala, Hon-duras and Mexico, each suspected by ICEofficials to be illegal immigrants. Of the 14people who died, 11 were men and threewere women.
Victor Corzo, of the Mexican Consulate inSan Antonio, said there was one Mexicanresident in the group, and he was among thedeceased.
OTHERINFORMATION■ A special Mass will be
celebrated at 7 p.m.Tuesday at Capilla dela Santisima Trinidad,2901 Pleasant GreenDrive, Victoria
■ MORE INFO: Call OurLady of Sorrows, 208W. River St.,361-575-2293
SEE CRASH, A4
Syria says it will use chemicalweapons against foreign attacks
BEIRUT (AP) – Syriathreatened Monday to un-leash its chemical and bi-ological weapons if thecountry faces a foreign at-tack, a desperate warningfrom a regime that hasfailed to crush a powerfuland strengthening rebel-lion.
The statement – Syria’sfirst-ever acknowledge-ment that the country pos-sesses weapons of massdestruction – suggestsPresident Bashar Assadwill continue the fight tostay in power, regardless
of the cost.“It would be reprehensi-
ble if anybody in Syria iscontemplating use of suchweapons of mass destruc-tion like chemicalweapons,” U.N. Secre-tary-General Ban Ki-moonsaid during a trip to Bel-grade, Serbia. “I sincerelyhope the internationalcommunity will keep aneye on this so that therewill be no such things hap-pening.”
Syria is believed to havenerve agents as well asmustard gas.
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Communities pull together, A4Immigration reform comes to fore, A5Tire pressure important to safety, A4
JOSH MORGAN/[email protected] small bouquet of white, plastic flowers rest in front of the accident site where14 illegal immigrants were killed and injured in Goliad County on Sunday night.
A4 — VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Tuesday, July 24, 2012 VictoriaAdvocate.com
GOL I AD CRASHPAGE DESIGNER: LUIS RENDON,[email protected], COPY EDITOR:NICK ROGERS, [email protected]
‘IT’S A JOB YOUHAVE TO DO’BY J.R. [email protected]
If anyone knows abouthighways veining throughthe Crossroads, it is Depart-ment of Public SafetyTrooper spokesman GeraldBryant.But what the 38-year DPSveteran saw when he droveup the dark stretch of U.S.Highway 59 in Berclair onSunday night was some-thing he could have neverimagined – a one-vehiclewreck – 11 fatalities at thescene.
“I’ve been to a lot of acci-dents,” Bryant said about awreck in which a trucktransporting 23 illegal immi-grants wrecked into a tree insouth Goliad County. “Thisis one of the top ones(wrecks) I’ve ever been to.”
In all, 14 have died thusfar.
Most fatal highway wreckstend to be single-vehicle, of-ten caused by impairment ofsome sort, particularly onstretches of highway thatcurve, Bryant said.
Bryant said he never ex-pected anything of thismagnitude. On his way tothe wreck, he heard sevenhad died but upon arriving,he learned 11 were killed.
“It’s an extreme shock,” hesaid. “Something like this isnot common at all ... but it’sa job that you have to do.”
The following is data ob-tained from the Texas De-partment of Transportationon the number of fatalwrecks and number of fatal-ities in the Advocate’s read-ership area counties for thepast five years.
GOLIAD , VICTORIA, JACKSONCALHOUN, REFUGIO, DEWITT,GONZALES
2007
2008
= 1 FATAL WRECK= 1 DEATH
2009
2010
2011
= 0 DEATHS ORWRECKS
Communities work togetherto aid, clean up Goliad wreck
BY CAROLINA [email protected]
A loud ring sounded through theGoliad County Sheriff ’s Depart-ment Sunday evening.
The 911 call set into motion emer-gency agencies trained to respondto wrecks, deaths and devastation.
In this case, the emergency was a2000 Ford F-250 extended-cab pick-up truck packed with 23 undocu-mented immigrants that hadcrashed into a tree on U.S. High-way 59.
Twenty-four hours after thewreck, the victims’ names have notbeen released.
But what is known is that emer-gency workers from many commu-nities came together to help thosein the wreck and to clean up thewreckage.
The communities includedSchroeder, Ander-Weser, Beeville,Goliad, Corpus Christi, San Antonioand Houston.
The Texas Department of PublicSafety conducted the investigation,while firefighters and deputiesworked to get people out of thetruck and the surrounding area.
The Goliad County Sheriff ’s De-partment deputies shut down thehighway to contain the scene.
Deputies redirected traffic toFarm-to-Market roads 883 and1351.
Sheriff ’s Capt. Tom Copeland saidhis team also worked to secure alanding space for helicopters totransport the injured to nearbyhospitals.
“They set up a landing site for he-
licopters on either side of the sceneso we could get air flights in andout.” The highway re-opened a lit-tle after midnight, he said.
The Goliad Volunteer Fire De-partment left for the scene after re-ceiving a call from the sheriff ’s of-fice.
Fire Chief Alonzo Morales Jr. saidhe had never seen an accident likeSunday night’s in his 32 years as afirefighter.
“You, as a responder, have tomaintain a certain level of calm-ness,” Morales said. “We respond-ed to it and we are ready to preparefor the next one.”
Morales said he had 25 firefight-ers on the scene. They also re-ceived additional assistance fromnearby volunteer fire departmentsin Ander-Weser and Schroeder.
“In cases such as last night, re-questing assistance from ourneighboring counties is most effec-tive,” Goliad County EMS Adminis-trator Peggy Fonseca said.
The EMS sent two ambulancesand four medics to the scene.
The injured were taken to DeTarHospital Navarro in Victoria andother hospitals in Corpus Christi,San Antonio and Beeville.
Judith Barefield, director of mar-keting for the DeTar HealthcareSystem, said as a level 3 traumacenter, DeTar does its best to pre-pare for situations like these.
“You have codes and you imple-ment your codes as needed,” Bare-field said. “This is when all thattraining comes into play.”
As of Monday afternoon, Bare-field said a man, the one patient ad-mitted to the hospital from thewreck, remained in critical condi-tion.
“It was just a tragic accident,”Barefield said.
RESPONSE
What do you think should happen to thesurvivors of the Goliad wreck?
QUESTION OFTHE DAY
Tommy Means,Subway, Victoria
Bob Johnson,retired, Victoria
Miranda Martin,22, Victoria
I believe they should be caredfor, then returned to their coun-try.
Considering they are illegal, ifthey had come in legally, theywouldn’t be in that situation.
Jackie Dick,receptionist, Victoria
After everything they’ve beenthrough, it would be nice if theycould be given a greencard and allowed towork here.
They should be treated andallowed to stay, just like therest of us.
Tire maintenance importantfor both safety, life of vehicleBY ALLISON [email protected]
Tire maintenance is key when itcomes to a smooth ride and safetravel.
A weekend wreck brought thatmessage close to home in the Cross-roads.
A one-vehicle wreck on Sundaykilled 11 people at the scene, whileanother three later died at area hos-pitals after the pickup truck’s rightfront tire lost its tread.
Harrison Peterson, who owns Vic-toria’s P&H Tire Co., encouragedpeople to keep tires inflated accord-ing to manufacturer recommenda-tions. That information is often lo-cated on a placard inside the driv-er’s door, he said, but is also avail-able from any company that offerstire services.
Under-inflated tires not only makefor a less even ride, but can also low-er gas mileage and affect the vehi-cle’s weigh capacity, he explained.
Tread is another important ele-ment, Peterson said, noting a simpletest to know when one’s tires arelow.
Stick a penny into the tread, he ad-vised, with Lincoln’s head up-
side-down. If you can see the top ofhis head, it’s too low and it’s time fornew tires.
Peterson encouraged even peoplewho don’t often use their vehicles tohave the tires checked at least everyfew years.
“Even if you don’t have many mileson them, they’re still 6 years old,” hesaid. “They’ve been exposed to theelements for six years. There couldbe problems.”
Frequent checks can play a big rolein catching trouble before it hap-pens, said Jesus Lopez, a tire techni-cian with Wharton County Tire Co.
He urged drivers to check theirtires regularly for any possible is-sues. Any tire shop can check airpressure, he said, and it just takes afew minutes.
When it comes to other upkeep, hesaid oil changes provided helpful re-minders. Rotate tires at everychange, he advised, and have thembalanced every two changes.
Such ongoing maintenance not on-ly ensures safety, Lopez said, but al-so extends a tire’s life.
“A tire that would get 50,000 milesmight only get 30,000,” he said.“Then you’re just wasting money.”
DRIVING
WANTTOKNOWMORE?Moreinformationon tire safetyis availableonline at theNationalHighwayTraffic SafetyAdministration’swebsite. Tolearn more,visit VictoriaAdvocate.com,click on thisstory andfollow theattached link.
DID YOU KNOW ... ?■ Back seat passengers who wear seatbelts are 44 percent more likely to survive
crashes inside passenger cars than unrestrained passengers are. They’re 73percent more likely to survive crashes in vans or SUVs than unrestrainedpassengers
■ Texas law requires all drivers and passengers to wear seatbelts. That includesadults in the back seat
■ Children younger than 8 years old must be in a safety seat or booster seat unlessthey are taller than 4 feet, 9 inches.
SOURCE: CLICK IT OR TICK IT TEXAS WEBSITE
Help came from areafirefighters, law officersand hospitals in 4 cities
The identities are unknown, butAdrian Fulton, of the VictoriaMortuary and Cremation Service,said the ages of those killed rangefrom about 8 to about 25 years old.Two of the deceased were girlsabout 8 and 10, he said.
“It’s the worst single motor ve-hicle accident I’ve ever seen inmy life,” said Fulton, who is in pos-session of the 11 people who diedat the scene, located about threemiles south of Farm-to-MarketRoad 1351 on U.S. Highway 59.“We deal with this on a regular ba-sis, but I was shocked when Ifound out there were 10 fatalities.I called the sheriff ’s office to con-firm before we went out there ...none have been identified.”
Fulton said he required five ve-hicles and six employees to assistwith collecting the bodies fromthe scene. They were found withminimal personal items, such as atoothbrush and toothpaste, butlittle else, he said.
“It could take weeks to identifythem,” he said.
After initial examinations of thebodies, Fulton said most sufferedbroken limbs and other traumafrom being ejected. The six whodied from the inside of the cabwere crushed and may have bledinternally. There were no largelacerations.
He said his mortuary will holdthe bodies until the families arecontacted and plans are made totransport them home. If no oneclaims them, Victoria County willbe responsible for handling funer-al services, he said.
The driver of the extended-cabpickup truck, who was one of the11 who died on impact, was head-ing toward Goliad and struck atree, Department of Public Safetytroopers said.
The right front tire appeared tohave lost its tread about 300 yardsbefore impact, which occurredabout 6:30 p.m. Sunday. The driv-er veered to the right side of theroad and crashed into the trees,said DPS Lt. Glen Garrett.
The highway’s speed limit is 75mph. Garrett said the truck wouldlikely have been traveling at leastthat fast.
Of the 11 who died at the scene,six were inside the cab and fivewere killed after they were eject-ed from the bed of the truck, saidTrooper Gerald Bryant. Three ad-ditional passengers later died inarea hospitals.
The top of the extended-cabpickup truck had to be cut awayby firefighters from Goliad andBeeville. More than 40 emergen-cy responders assisted with thewreck.
The 12 initially injured were tak-en to DeTar Hospital Navarro inVictoria and to hospitals inBeeville, San Antonio and CorpusChristi.
As of 9 p.m Monday, nine of the23 passengers were still alive.
“I know why they want to comehere; they want a better life, butthey need to do it the legal way,”Gonzalez said. “They need to stayhere and get the help they need,and then if they want to stay herepermanently, they should try togo through the legal system andapply for a green card.”
Tote employee, Shirley Frick,agreed with Gonzalez, but said ifshe were desperate enough tomake a better life for herself andher children in another country,she may consider drastic mea-sures to achieve it.
“They should do it legally, but if Iwere in their shoes, I’d be doingthe same thing,” she said. “It wasreally sad last night when I wasworking here. I had chill bumpsthe whole time because it wasright down the road.”
The Rev. Stan De Boe, of OurLady of Sorrows Church in Victo-ria, has offered to provide funeralservices for the deceased if thefamilies prefer for them to beburied in the United States.
He has also contacted VictoriaCounty Sheriff T. Michael O’Con-nor, as well as Fulton, to volunteerhis ministerial services for any-one who may need counseling orprayer.
“I think we need to be aware ofthe plight of the migrants, andrecognize there are those whoare coming here for economic op-portunities, and those who arecoming through with crime anddrug smuggling,” he said. Thosewho died in the wreck were “notcoming here to disrupt our soci-ety.”
Homeland Security Investiga-tions is providing assistance toDPS and the Goliad County Sher-iff ’s Office. HSI was working Mon-day to identify the bodies at Victo-ria Mortuary Service.
“It’s really unbelievable andsad. Nobody deserves this. No-body deserves to die, no matterhow you feel about immigration,”Gonzalez said.
The Advocate’s Carolina As-train contributed to this re-port.
CONTINUED FROM A1
CRASH
ANGELI WRIGHT/[email protected] search through a victim’s personal belongings found in thebrush where a white Ford F-250 extended-cab pick-up truck crashed into atree along U.S. Highway 59 Sunday night between Goliad and Berclair. Theidentities of the 23 people in the truck are not yet known.
COLOR KEY:
GRAPHIC BYLUIS RENDON,
VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Tuesday, July 24, 2012 —A5VictoriaAdvocate.com
GOL I AD CRASHPAGE DESIGNER: LUIS RENDON,[email protected] COPY EDITOR:NICK ROGERS, [email protected]
Martinez and his familyhave devoted years to sup-porting the Hispanic commu-nity through his leadershipposition with the League ofUnited Latin American Citi-zens. He leads District 10,which includes Austin, Cal-houn, Colorado, DeWitt, Goli-ad, Jackson, Karnes, Lavaca,Matagorda, Refugio, Victoriaand Wharton counties.
While the local leaguelargely supports the commu-nity through educationalscholarships, the nationalchapter has addressed thegrowing need for comprehen-sive immigration reform.
One key element includesreducing the backlog of peo-ple seeking residency or cit-izenship, and streamliningthe naturalization process tobe “consistent, fair and equi-table for those seeking U.S.citizenship,” according to thenational website.
“This is an immigrant coun-try, everybody here has fam-ily who came here as immi-grants,” Martinez said. “I’mnot an advocate of illegal im-migration, I believe theyshould make it legal ... Givethem amnesty.”
Close the border or build awall, the problem will not goaway, Martinez said.
“If I lived in Mexico, myfamily was starving and Ididn’t have a job, I’m going togo find some way to put foodon the table,” he said. “Evenif it means coming across il-legally.”
Victoria County Sheriff T.Michael O’Connor weighed inon the Goliad tragedy from asheriff ’s convention Mondayin Dallas.
He said he has had conver-sations with Mexican mi-grants on why they left,where they were going andwhere they came from. A15-year-old girl risked thedanger of crossing into Texasto escape her home-life afteryears of abuse at the hands ofher family, O’Connor said.
“Time and time again, you’llhear stories of this nature,”O’Connor said. “They look atthe United States as the land
of opportunity.”He said legislators need to
“take a hard look” at the is-sue.
Because getting citizenshipcan take up to 10 years andcost thousands of dollars,“they’ll just take theirchances,” O’Connor said.
In 2003, Victoria caught na-tional attention when anabandoned tractor trailerwas discovered filled with de-ceased immigrants. O’Con-nor said the memory was stillin his mind.
“You look at the heartlessaspects of putting these peo-ple in harm’s way for greedand money,” he said. “Youdon’t know if these people willever be identified.”
The circumstances of thewreck – a pickup truck with23 passengers traveling inbroad daylight, mid-Julydown a busy highway – is notuncommon.
“We haven’t come across itin the past two or three years,but it doesn’t mean it doesn’texist,” he said.
In the past, trafficking camein seasons, typically in thespring and fall. Over the pastfive years, human smugglingbecame constant year-round,he said.
He said he hopes sheriffs’proactive efforts have de-terred human smuggling.
“It isn’t just the border,” hesaid, the depth of the issuespreads from the south upthrough North Texas.
He said Houston is the pri-mary destination in Texas,and the Crossroads getscaught in the mix.
“In our area, if you draw aline from San Antonio to theboarder, the majority istraversing through Highways59 and 77,” O’Connor said.“Victoria is where both thesehighways meet.”
Although national statisticsindicate a decrease in illegalimmigration, O’Connor dis-agrees.
“I absolutely do not agreewith that at all, we’re the firstresponders,” he said, min-utes after a sheriff ’s seminarended on the subject Mondayafternoon. “There isn’t onesheriff here who’s telling meit has diminished.”
CONTINUED FROM A1
IMMIGRATION: Look at US as‘land of opportunity,’ sheriff says
Immigrant deaths are bipartisan tragedy
BY J.R. [email protected]
The deaths of 14 illegal im-migrants should be a wake-upcall to stronger border securi-ty – a responsibility that fallson the lap of the U.S. govern-ment, several elected state of-ficials said Monday.
Sunday’s fatal single-truckwreck in southern GoliadCountyshows the uncompas-sionate truth behind the life ofa human trafficker, said Dis-trict 30 state Rep. GeanieMorrison, R-Victoria.
Human traffickers are prey-ing on the poor, who wantnothing but a better life, sheadded.
“I just mourn for these peo-ple and their families,” Morri-son said. “They (traffickers)don’t care about these people.It’s all for money and gain.”
Border security is not onlyimportant for those riskingtheir lives to live in America,but also for those already liv-ing here who are affected bydrug violence and traffickingspilling into the country.
The scary and sad truth isthe deaths of people beingsmuggled into America isnothing new, Morrison said.
In 2003, 19 illegal immi-grants were found trapped ina trailer off U.S. Highway 77 atFleming Prairie Road. In1989, four immigrants werefound dead in a rail car, poi-soned by pesticides that hadbeen sprayed into the trailer.
These stories are not un-common, said Alex Hernan-dez, Democratic candidate for
state representative district30.
The blame is on the humantraffickers trying to make afast buck – something he andhis incumbent opponentagree on.
Hernandez has more than10 years of experience in ille-gal immigration cases.
“The punishment for hu-man traffickers isn’t strictenough,” Hernandez said.“It’s not their (illegal immi-grants’) fault. Human traf-fickers are to blame. They’rejust here to try to make a liv-ing because what they haveat home is worse than whatthey have here.”
At least 1.7 million of Texas’population was made up of il-legal immigrants in 2007, ac-cording to the U.S. Immigra-tion Support website. Thenumber has likely increasedin the past five years.
This increase stems fromlack of federal governmentinvolvement, suggests Lt.Governor David Dewhurst,R-Texas, who is seeking theparty nomination for U.S.Senator in the July 31 runoffelection. The state is doingwhat has to be done, but nowit’s time for the federal gov-ernment to pick up theslack.
“Until Washington fully en-gages, Texas will continue tofight to protect the victimsexploited by this criminal ac-tivity and pressing the feder-al government to fulfill its re-sponsibility,” Dewhurstwrote in an email statement.“Here in Texas, we are work-ing hard to ensure that morepeople don’t fall into the trapof human trafficking andthat the people behind theseinsidious acts pay the pricefor their crimes.”
Traffickers blamed,but solutions todeadly problem vary
“Here in Texas, we are working hard to ensure that more people don’t fallinto the trap of human trafficking and that the people behind theseinsidious acts pay the price for their crimes.”
-Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst
ANGELI WRIGHT/[email protected] than 40 first responders attended the fatal one-vehicle wreck on U.S. Highway 59 between Goliad and Berclair on Sunday evening.Area and state politicians put the blame squarely on the human traffickers.
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