Mexico Truck Crash Leaves 53 Dead, Mostly Migrants

A truck accident in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas this week left at least 53 people dead and dozens more injured, authorities said.

The cargo truck was transporting more than 100 people who were said to be mostly migrants from Central America. It was traveling at an excessive speed and then flipped over while rounding a sharp curve along a highway between the town of Chiapa de Corzo and Chiapas' capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez on Thursday afternoon, The New York Times reported.

The trailer carrying the migrants crashed into a pedestrian bridge and nearby construction site, Luis Manuel García Moreno, the head of the state's Civil Protection Service, was cited as saying by the outlet.

At least 53 people died as a result of the accident, while at least 58 more people were injured. Around 21 of the injured suffered serious wounds and were taken to local hospitals, a report by the Associated Press said.

It was unclear if the driver of the truck survived.

Rescue workers arranged the dead side by side on the asphalt in rows of white sheets. The victims were believed to be migrants coming from Central America, but their nationalities have yet to be confirmed.

A number of the survivors were from Mexico's neighbor, Guatemala, according to Moreno.

There were also migrants from Honduras and between eight to 10 young children onboard, Guatemalan survivor Celco Pacheco said.

At least 107 people may have been crammed into the trailer, but the first rescue workers to arrive at the scene — who were not authorized to be quoted by name — said that even more migrants were inside the truck when it crashed and had fled due to fear of being detained by immigration agents.

Some of those who fled to the surrounding neighborhoods had limped away despite being bloodied or bruised, one paramedic said.

Those who spoke with survivors said the migrants told them they boarded the truck near the Mexico-Guatemala border and paid between $2,500 and $3,500 to be transported to the central Mexican state of Puebla, where they would presumably have contracted another set of migrant smugglers to take them to the U.S. border.

Chiapas has seen a surge of migrants from Central America in recent years, with many being smuggled through Mexico on their way to the U.S. border, according to The New York Times.

A record 1.7 million migrants — mainly from Mexico and Central American countries — were found trying to enter the U.S. illegally in the 12 months leading up to October this year.

Around 650 people were killed trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border this year, according to the International Organization for Migration. It is the highest number since the organization began documenting deaths along the border in 2014.

Thursday's accident comes a day after the U.S. relaunched its Remain in Mexico migrant enforcement program, which would force asylum seekers to wait across the border while their cases are determined in U.S. courts.