(The New York Times posted the following Associated Press article on its website on June 4.)
BAYTOWN, Texas — Three illegal immigrants died in a sweltering railroad car after two others fled the train and sought help from a priest.
The two who managed to flee the Union Pacific train in La Coste, near San Antonio, contacted a priest in Austin who informed the Mexican consulate about their weakened companions left behind Tuesday.
The immigrants were able to breathe while the train was moving, but the ventilation ceased when the train stopped, said Angeles Gomez, a spokeswoman for the Mexican consulate in Austin.
She said the three men died while the train was stopped and temperatures climbed. The surviving immigrants escaped by tying their clothing into a makeshift rope.
The survivors told officials that those left inside “were incapacitated or were too weak to get out,” said Capt. Robert Van Pelt, a spokesman for the Harris County Sheriff’s Department.
Mark Davis, a spokesman for Union Pacific, said the immigrants jumped into the hopper car Friday near the border. Outside temperatures in recent days have been around 100 degrees in the area.
“Put it this way: When you are in an enclosed container with over 100 degrees heat outside, which is magnified inside a steel container … it’s pretty gruesome what the outcome is,” Van Pelt said. “In a case like this, the facts certainly speak for themselves.”
The rail company learned Monday there might be dead immigrants in a railcar, Davis said. He said the rail company used descriptions provided by the survivors to determine which trains may have traveled Sunday through La Coste.
Tuesday’s discovery just east of Houston came three weeks after a stifling truck trailer filled with more than 70 undocumented immigrants was discovered abandoned in Victoria in south Texas. Seventeen were dead at the scene; two more died later.
Seven people have been arrested in that smuggling operation. Authorities said they didn’t believe the latest victims were assisted by smugglers.