EL PASO, Texas – Two young Mexican children were killed, and their mother and two sisters were hospitalized Friday after a sport utility vehicle ran over a family while speeding toward a border crossing, authorities said.
The SUV had a bloodied windshield and was dragging a baby stroller underneath when it stopped at a border checkpoint in the border town of El Paso, said Roger Maier, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (search).
Soon after the SUV stopped, Mexican officials reported to U.S. agents that a vehicle had crashed into the family of street vendors on the Mexican side of the border, killing the girls, ages 4 and 5, Maier said.
An unidentified 19-year-old man was jailed in El Paso on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, Maier said.
The injured girls are ages 2 and 11, and their conditions are unknown. The oldest child is in a Juarez (search) hospital with her mother, Avele Gutierrez de Castro, who is in serious condition, Mexican consulate spokeswoman Socorro Cordova said. The youngest is in intensive care at an El Paso hospital, Cordova said. The father was uninjured.
Maier said Mexican officials have reported the family was returning to Juarez when they were hit.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox