By Juan Montoya
Around mid-June, an accident involving trucks being sent into Latin America by local transmigrantes resulted in the death of a Guatemalan man who was crushed when a semi-trailer cab slipped off its moorings and killed him.
Authorities identified him as 43-year-old William Francisco Samayoa Vasquez from Guatemala. The fatality was ruled an accident and no charges being filed against the company where the trucks were parked for further transfer.
Just today, several transmigrantes were adjusting the tie downs on a similar transport carrying semi-trailers (top photo). They were parked on the frontage road in Brownsville off southbound 3th Street.Apparently, some of the tie downs had became loose due to the vibrations of the road and they said they were tightening them. It is not difficult to see that an accident like the one that happened last June could easily happen again. At the time of the June accident, a commenter said that the potential for accidents of these transmigrantes (and possibly the general public on the road) was heightened by the lack of controls by local and state law transportation enforcement agencies.
"Just like it happened on the transmigrantes yard, it can happen on the interstate especially when nothing is done when they are pulling up to 3 junked cars on the highway, half asleep from driving all night," the commenter said. "There ought to be more controls over all these potential accidents and deaths."
The June accident happened at Transmigrantes Vida Nueva, 30471 Rangerville Road in San Benito, according to the Cameron County Sheriff's Dept. That business is owed by Florentino Piñon who at the time was unavailable for comment on how the man came to be trapped under the semi truck.
