Two die in crash; illegal smuggling of immigrants suspected (Salt Lake Tribune)

Two die in crash; illegal smuggling of immigrants suspected
Four of the surviving passengers were released to ICE custody.

By Melinda Rogers
The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 03/25/2009 07:38:31 AM MDT

Richfield » Two people were killed in an accident near Salina in Sevier County on Tuesday morning while possibly trying to enter the country illegally, investigators say.

A Toyota van carrying 12 people was eastbound on Interstate 70 in Salina Canyon when the driver apparently fell asleep at the wheel and veered off the road, said Utah Highway Patrol spokesman Cameron Roden.

The van hit rumble strips on the road and the driver woke up, but overcorrected the vehicle, causing it to hit a guardrail and roll, Roden said.

When the vehicle rolled, four occupants were ejected and thrown down a 50 foot embankment, said UHP Corporal Nick Bowles. Two males, whose names and ages were not released, died at the scene.

Four people were transported to the Sevier Valley Hospital where they were treated for minor injuries and then released to the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Bowles said the van was coming from California and bound for Denver.

Lori Haley, a spokeswoman for ICE, said the incident is being investigated as a possible human smuggling operation. She said the occupants in the van were Mexican and Guatemalan, while the nationalities of the two deceased men were still being determined.

If authorities determine the van's passengers were undocumented immigrants, Tuesday's incident adds to a string of rollovers resulting in the deaths of immigrants.

A minivan believed to be carrying undocumented immigrants rolled on Interstate 15 in Iron County in November 2007, killing 16-year-old Brenda Veronica Martinez. The driver of the van fell asleep at the wheel, according to UHP. After the vehicle flipped, six to eight other passengers in the vehicle scattered in several directions, leaving authorities to believe its occupants were undocumented.

In April 2007, Guatemala native Rigoberto Salas-Lopez received a federal charge of transporting illegal aliens resulting in death after the SUV he was driving in southeastern Utah rolled and killed eight people on April 17.

Salas-Lopez told ICE investigators that a man in Phoenix gave him $1,000 plus $500 in gas money to drive three Mexican and 11 Guatemalan immigrants from Arizona to St. Louis.

Five people also died in August 2007 after a Suburban carrying 11 people, mostly undocumented immigrants, flipped off Interstate 70, about 15 miles east of Green River.

Two passengers died in June 2007 when a pickup carrying undocumented immigrants overturned near Hurricane. The driver, Eswin Enrique Aquino-Lopez, pleaded guilty to a felony charge and was sentenced to 27 months in prison. Marvin Eduardo Barrios-Socop, 35, also was sentenced to 30 months behind bars in the incident for the charge of transporting illegal aliens.

In October 2005, two people died when a northbound Dodge Caravan loaded with 16 undocumented immigrants overturned on U.S. Highway 191 south of Moab.