Authorities in southeast Texas confirm 13 people died Sunday night in a single-car accident. State Troopers say a Ford F-250 pickup truck was overloaded with 23 people when it ran off the right side of Highway 59 northbound and slammed into two trees near the small town of Goliad.
"In my 38 years as an officer, this is one of the worst fatalities I have been to and I have never seen where we had that many in a vehicle," Highway Patrol Trooper Gerald Bryant told a local news station.
Lt. Glen Garrett of the Department of Public Safety said the passengers were crowded in the cab and the bed of the truck. Six of the dead were found inside the vehicle. Rescuers used the jaws of life to free several survivors. Eleven people were airlifted to hospitals in San Antonio and Corpus Christi with life threatening injuries, but at least one died en route.
Authorities say the dead include men, women and children. The cause of the crash remains unclear and is under investigation. Police are still in the process of identifying the passengers, but Bryant said there is a “high probability” they are illegal immigrants.
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