Deadly Crash at the Border of Texas

When the white Honda Civic failed to stop for a Texas sheriff's officer who attempted to pull it over, the deputy pursued it along Highway 57, a remote two-lane road that leads to the border between the United States and Mexico. In Texas, pursuing migrants and suspected smugglers at high speeds has become commonplace. However, the pursuit on Wednesday ended in one of the bloodiest ways in recent memory: a head-on collision that claimed the lives of eight people, including two Georgians and one Honduran. According to Stout, Texas troopers have conducted almost 500 high-speed chases in his border county alone this year, with over half of them going above 100 mph.

On Thursday, the identity of the victims, who included the Civic's driver, age 21, and its five occupants, remained undisclosed by the authorities. A guy and woman were inside the Chevrolet Equinox when it took fire after the Civic struck it. Both perished. The U.S. Justice Department received a complaint from the American Civil Liberties Union and another civil rights organization last year regarding high-speed chases near the Texas border. The groups claimed, citing news accounts, to have tallied 30 fatalities and 71 injuries from state trooper pursuits over the first 16 months of Abbott's border operation.

Since 13 persons lost their lives in a collision in the isolated town of Holtville, California, in March 2021, the Texas crash has resulted in the highest number of fatalities involving migrants. Four migrants were killed in another police pursuit near the Texas border last year. According to Stout, this year's high-speed chases in El Paso have caused over 60 accidents. He remembered a chase that resulted in a vehicle smashing into a bridge. According to Stout, two migrants inside the automobile plummeted to their deaths when they tried to escape.