GOLIAD, Texas (AP) — A pickup truck overloaded with passengers veered off a highway and crashed into trees in rural South Texas, killing at least 13 people and leaving nine injured, authorities said.
Gerald Bryant, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the 23 passengers, were crammed inside the truck's cab and bed, including at least two young children whom he saw among the dead after the Sunday evening crash.
Bryant said investigators have confirmed the driver of a pickup that crashed into trees in South Texas was among 13 people killed. Bryant said the driver was among the people who died at the scene of the crash. Two others died later at hospitals.
Bryant said investigators were working Monday to confirm the name of the driver. He says the truck was registered to another person in Houston.
"This is the most people I've seen in any passenger vehicle, and I've been an officer for 38 years," Bryant said, referring to the chaotic scene in Goliad County.
The white 2000 Ford F-250 pickup was heading north on U.S. 59 on Sunday evening when it drove off the right side of the highway near the unincorporated community of Berclair in Goliad County and struck two large trees, Bryant said. Berclair is about 100 miles southeast of San Antonio.
State troopers and Goliad County sheriff's investigators were investigating what caused the single-vehicle crash. Border Patrol was assisting with the investigation.
"It's unknown whether or not (the victims) were illegal, but it's possible," Bryant told the AP.
Six of those who died were still inside the mangled vehicle truck when emergency crews arrived at the scene, Bryant said.
"It's been very chaotic here, and it's very traumatic," Bryant told the San Antonio-Express News.
He told The Associated Press that several of the surviving victims had life-threatening injuries. He did not have their official conditions but described them as "very serious." The injured were taken to hospitals in San Antonio, Victoria and Corpus Christi.
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