Human smuggler kills two civilians in car chase near southern border

Law enforcement officials took the 18-year-old smuggling suspect, who was the driver, into custody at the scene of the accident. They also placed six migrants into custody along with him.

At this time, charges are expected to be laid, but haven't been yet.

The victims' families are being searched out so that they can be notified.

Southern Texas has seen an alarming spike in these types of incidents in the past year. One feature article by ProPublica reports that on average, there is a crash in the fairly sparsely-populated region every nine days, and these crashes are often fatal due to the high speeds involved.

"In the last four years alone, along the U.S. side of the border, at least 250 people were injured and 22 died after a Border Patrol pursuit," reports Propublica, going on to report that "the database is almost certainly an undercount — it does not include cases in which the driver got away or died, since the complaints are filed only after arrests. It also does not include pursuits for other crimes, including drug smuggling."

One alarming and spectacular car crash on Oct. 3 2021 even involved a prominent TikTok personality, who was acting as the smuggler in this case. The high-speed chase once again ended in the driver of the car losing control and crashing his vehicle. In this case, he did not survive the crash.