In this aerial view, members of law enforcement investigate a trailer on June 27, 2022 in San Antonio, Texas. More than 40 people were found dead Monday in a large truck in San Antonio, Texas, Governor Greg Abbott said.
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More than 40 migrants were found dead Monday in the trailer of a large truck in San Antonio, authorities said.
San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood says at least 46 people have died and 16 people, including four children, have been hospitalized.
The victims included both men and women and women, many of them young men, officials said.
Three people were arrested, San Antonio Police Chief William P. McManus said.
The grim discovery was made in the early hours of Monday night in an undeveloped area southwest of San Antonio near railroad tracks. Several people working in the area said they heard cries for help and discovered at least one body, officials said.
“We’re not allowed to open a truck and see piles of bodies in it,” the fire chief said.
The sheriff said survivors lacked water and air conditioning. “The patients we see are hot to the touch,” he said.
McManus said the Homeland Security Investigations Agency took over the investigation. The heat will likely be a focus for those investigating the deaths. The temperature rose to 101 on Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
The temperature inside a trailer full of people can be significantly higher than the temperature outside.
A committee of the National Association of Medical Examiners recommended that objects with a temperature of 105 or higher at the time of collapse certified as heat-related death.
In 2017, 10 migrants died in a packed truck carrying 39 people in San Antonio in the heat of the summer.
Driver James Mathew Bradley Jr., 60, of Clearwater, Fla., Begged crimes of conspiring and transporting migrantsthough his wife said he didn’t know someone was in the trailer.
– This is an evolving story; check again for updates.
