(March 11, 2009)

PREMONT--Another dangerous bailout in Premont ends with crash, injuring nine people late last night. Authortiies said they're lucky nobody got killed, but the smuggler got away. It's believed he used a stolen car and authorities say it's a new trend being used by smugglers to get away.

Take one look at the truck involved in this bailout and authorities wonder how nobody was killed? It ended in this ditch just near Farm to Market road 716 in Premont.

Authorities said nine undocument immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras were seriously hurt, while three got away.

"When they hit the creek, all these individuals were not secured in the vehicle," said Captain Joe Martinez of the Jim Wells County Sheriff's Department. "Obviously they were thrown out of the vehicle."

When authorities started investigating, they found the truck was stolen from Houston. They said the driver wasn't found and he's believed to be the smuggler.

"It's very hard to catch these drivers," Captain Martinez said. "They know exactly where they are going to bail out. We have to think of safety first and of course the property and lives of other people of the community."

Investigating officers said when cars are stolen from outside the area, that makes it tougher to find the smugglers.

"It's a fair assumption to say they're using those vehicles to disguise themselves from their identity," said Captain Martinez. 

Authorities also said smugglers are taking license plates from other cars and placing them on the stolen vehicles. That was the case in this bailout in Premont.

"So they switch out the license plates so if someone runs their license plate it's not going to show that it's stolen or that the original vehicle is stolen," Captain Martinez said.  

Just another trend for law enforcement officers to be looking for while patrolling on Highway 281 in Jim Wells County. When they pull over cars, they're checking this out to stop human smuggling in the Coastal Bend.

--Manuel De La Rosa, Area 3 News, mdelarosa@kiiitv.com