Three people were seriously injured when a pickup with 13 people in the cab and bed overturned while being pursued by Border Patrol agents Tuesday evening in eastern San Diego County, authorities said.
The other 10 occupants of the Chevrolet Silverado suffered less serious injuries, said Capt. Frank LoCoco of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in San Diego. Paramedics airlifted one person to a hospital and took the other 12 to hospitals via ambulance.
A spokesperson for the Border Patrol in San Diego said agents “were involved in a failure-to-yield incident” but provided few other details.
Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which is responsible for investigating possible employee misconduct within the agency, responded to the scene, spokesperson Gerrelaine Alcordo said.
California Highway Patrol officers also responded along with Cal Fire crews and the Border Patrol agents, LoCoco and Alcordo said.
The crash occurred shortly after 6 p.m. on westbound Interstate 8 south of Pine Valley, between Buckman Springs Road and Sunrise Highway, authorities said. The area is near a Border Patrol checkpoint.
“Multiple people were ejected from the back and the cab,” LoCoco said. “We found patients inside the cab as well.”
LoCoco said one medical helicopter, four ambulances and five fire engines responded to the scene, which Cal Fire categorized as a “mass casualty” event.
In October, the Border Patrol sent out a news release reporting growing concerns over “an increase in dangerous failure-to-yield incidents … spanning from San Diego beach communities to east county.” Supervisory Agent Tekae Michael said in the release that from Oct. 1 to Oct. 27, agents in the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector had encountered 23 failure-to-yield incidents involving suspected human smuggling.
Such incidents have had deadly consequences in the past. In August 2017, three people died and one was hurt…