A truck accident in Mexico killed 53 migrants and injured dozens more, according to reports.

truck

On Thursday, police said that a cargo truck filled with people who appeared to be Central American migrants flipped over and slammed onto a pedestrian bridge over on a highway in southern Mexico, killing at least 53 people and wounding almost five dozen others.

According to the head of the Chiapas state civil defence office, Luis Manuel Moreno, a preliminary estimate lists 49 people dead and 58 people injured. Around 40 people were hurt, he added, and were brought to local hospitals with critical wounds. The number of people killed in the Mexico road tragedy was later revised to 53.

At least 107 individuals were crammed inside the truck as a result of this. Freight trucks transporting so many individuals in migrant-smuggling operations in southern Mexico are not uncommon.

The accident occurred on a highway going to the state capital of Chiapas. Victims were strewn across the pavement and inside the truck’s freight compartment, according to photos taken at the scene.

The victims seemed to be Central American immigrants, however their nationalities were not confirmed. According to Moreno, some of the survivors claimed to be from Guatemala, a neighbouring nation.

According to Moreno, the sheer weight of the truck’s human cargo may have caused it to tip over, and the vehicle collided with the base of a steel pedestrian bridge as it did so.

Mexican officials have attempted to stop migrants from marching in large groups toward the US border in recent months, but migrant smuggling has continued clandestinely and illegally.

Authorities in the northern border state of Tamaulipas discovered 652 mostly Central American migrants crowded into a convoy of six freight trucks moving toward the US border in October, in one of the greatest busts in recent memory.

Migrants who are involved in major accidents are frequently allowed to remain in Mexico, at least temporarily, because they are both witnesses and victims of a crime.

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