At least 10 people died and about 10 others were injured Sunday in a multi-vehicle crash on a highway in the western Mexican state of Jalisco, the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection of Nayarit said.
Mexico’s Army, Air Force and National Guard said in a post on X that nine people were killed, a different toll than the Secretariat’s figure. Jalisco Civil Protection told Reuters that four U.S. citizens suffered minor injuries and were taken to Arboledas Hospital in Guadalajara by a private ambulance.
Officials said the crash occurred after a tractor-trailer apparently suffered brake failure and plowed into a line of vehicles that had stopped because of an earlier accident. Mexico’s Army, Air Force and National Guard said the tractor-trailer crashed into several vehicles, citing initial reports.
The Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection of Nayarit said the initial incident involved a rear-end collision between two tractor-trailers and that a third tractor-trailer struck the scene as emergency crews responded. The agency said three private vehicles and two tractor-trailer trucks were destroyed by fire, and that two other private vehicles and an official National Guard Dodge Charger sustained material damage.
Videos circulating on social media showed several vehicles engulfed in flames, sending plumes of black smoke into the air, Reuters reported. Reuters also reported that two of those killed were minors and that two injured were National Guard members with serious injuries who were taken to a hospital in Guadalajara. Firefighters later extinguished the blaze, and Mexican outlet El Financiero reported the tractor-trailer driver was detained by the National Guard.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
