Laurent Banguet
Los Angeles – At least 13 people were killed in southern California on Tuesday when a vehicle packed with passengers collided with a large truck in a “chaotic scene” close to the Mexico border, officials said.
The accident occurred when the SUV carrying more than two dozen people – including minors – and a semi-truck full of gravel crashed near El Centro, California, said Judy Cruz, an official from El Centro Regional Medical Center.
The area of the state is a thoroughfare for Mexican immigrants and farmworkers headed north towards California’s rich agricultural centre. At least 10 of the deceased victims were Mexican, according to the Mexican government.
“It’s too early in the investigation to say what they were doing and where they were coming from,” Omar Watson of the California Highway Patrol said during a Tuesday afternoon press briefing.