Honduran man who survived horrific Texas van crash says he saw one female victim's body DISMEMBERED: Coyotes held us at a border town stash house before migrants were stacked on top of one another in vehicle
- A Honduran man, one of 20 migrants who survived a crash that killed 10 others in Encino, Texas, last Wednesday said the group was held at a stash house
- The 28-year-old, release from a McAllen hospital Friday, said they had departed from the border town and were 90 minutes into the trip when the van crashed
- He told Univision that of the three women that he saw dead, one of the bodies was split near the midsection
- The man said he tried to revive his friend Jorge Barralaga before he noticed that he was dead after suffering a cut to his neck and face area
- He said the driver of the vehicle, designed for 15 passengers, was speaking on a phone before he hit a utility pole on Highway 281
A Honduran man recalled how a woman's body was partially cut off after the overcrowded van they were traveling in crashed on a highway in Texas, leaving 10 migrants and the driver dead.
The 28-year-old migrant, who wished not to reveal his identity, was one of 20 people who survived when the driver lost control of the large vehicle as he neared a curve and plowed into a utility pole on Highway 281 in Encino last Wednesday afternoon.
'You will never forget all all of the people who died,' he said in an interview with Univision moments after he was released from a McAllen, Texas, hospital Friday.
The Honduran national said the van departed from a stash house in the border town of McAllen and was nearly 90 minutes into the trip towards Dallas when tragedy struck.
Honduran man, one of 20 migrants who survived a crash that killed 10 others in Encino, Texas, last Wednesday said the group was held at a stash house
Authorities tend to the injured migrants after their vehicle smashed into a pole on a Texas highway on August 4
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A former taxi driver back home in Central America, the victim said the smugglers made sure to fit as many migrants as they could inside the Ford van, which was designed to sit only 15 passengers.
Some of the undocumented migrants were forced to kneel while other had to lie on top of the passengers.
'I could just hear the impact. Some were rolling around and others were on top of each other. I stood in the same spot because I was crammed together with the other people,' the former taxi driver said.
He added the driver was speeding and also distracted because he was 'driving with the telephone, he didn't know anything (about the route).'
The injured migrant remembered how he kept his fellow passengers calm as they began to push each other inside the crowded vehicle while others complained about not being able to move their feet.
Several bodies were tossed out of the vehicle, which was completely wrecked. The Honduran man remembered coming across the bodies of three women, including one whose corpse was practically split in half.
He also saw his his friend Jorge Barralaga lying on the grass field next to a group of migrants.
Honduran national Jorge Barralaga was among the 11 people, including 10 migrants, in Wednesday's crash. He was heading to reunite with his father in Dallas, Texas
The crash happened in Encino, Texas nearly 2 miles south from the Falfurrias Border Patrol check point
He initially thought the 22-year-old from Honduras was unconscious only before he noticed two large gashes across his neck and the right side of the face.
According to Brooks County Sheriff, Benny Martínez, those killed included six Hondurans, three Mexicans and one Guatemalan.
According to Telemundo, the Honduran survivor met Barralaga after both men were reportedly kidnapped in Mexico by smugglers.
They spent as many as three months in captivity before their families in the Dallas area secured their freedom by paying the traffickers $5,000 each.
Both men formed part of a large group that was held at one of the many houses the smugglers use to hide migrants in the southern border region in Texas before reuniting them with their relatives in other cities across the United States.
The crushed van rests in tall grass two miles south of the Falfurrias U.S. Border Patrol three-lane traffic checkpoint
Survivors of the horrific crash were transported to hospitals in Rio Grande Valley and Corpus Christi
The Honduran man's sister told Telemundo last Thursday that the smugglers or coyotes, 'were only asking for money, money, money, and they never did anything for any of them. What they did was a pure scam, a pure robbery,' the sister, whose name was withheld."
'I say they did that to grab more money,' she said. 'They put people at risk even though you put yourself at risk from the moment you put yourself in their hands. One does not know if they will arrive with their family member or not.'
The van driver and each of the 10 passengers were pronounced dead at the scene.
The Texas Department of Public Safety is leading the investigation with assistance from the Brooks County Sheriff's Office.
Encino, a small community of about 140 residents, is two miles south of the Falfurrias Border Patrol three-lane traffic check point.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection was on the scene quickly but is not involved in the investigation as authorities have not found evidence that the van was or had gone through the checkpoint.
- 10 confirmed dead after van believed to be transporting migrants crashed in Brooks County | MyRGV.com
- "Solo vi la gente muerta", el desgarrador testimonio de un sobreviviente del accidente donde murieron 10 migrantes | Shows Noticiero Univision | Univision
- "Fue pura estafa": hermana de sobreviviente del accidente en Texas dice que este pasó cinco meses en manos de coyotes en México | Telemundo
