Driver arrested in New Mexico crash that killed 2, hurt 10

SANTA TERESA, N.M. — A Mexican man has been arrested for reckless driving in reference to a rollover crash that left two individuals useless and 10 others injured final week, New Mexico State Police mentioned Monday.

They mentioned 19-year-old Julio Garcia Rascon was driving an SUV at a excessive fee of velocity round 5 a.m. on July 27 when it struck a utility pole and rolled close to Santa Teresa a number of miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.

Police mentioned 24-year-old Jorge Garcia-Vazquez and 18-year-old Guadalupe Cruze-Vasquez, each from Mexico, have been ejected from the automobile and pronounced useless on the scene.

Rascon and 9 passengers have been transported to a hospital in El Paso, Texas for remedy whereas one different passenger escaped damage.

Police mentioned Rascon was launched two days later and booked right into a Dona Ana County jail in Las Cruces on suspicion of reckless driving, two counts of murder by automobile and 10 counts of nice bodily damage by automobile.

It was unclear Monday if Rascon had a lawyer but who may communicate on his behalf.

Throughout theiir crash investigation, State Police mentioned investigators realized {that a} U.S. Customs and Border Safety agent tried to make a site visitors cease on the SUV but it surely was unsuccessful and the automobile with the 13 occupants sped away.

Whereas authorities didn’t establish the individuals within the SUV as immigrants, the stretch of border in southeastern New Mexico the place the crash occurred is among the many spots the place migrants usually are smuggled throughout from Mexico in SUVs.