SAN ANTONIO — More than 50 are dead of heat-related illness after they were found inside an abandoned tractor-trailer in San Antonio Monday evening.
The trailer did not have working air-conditioning and there were no signs of water inside.
"Horrible, horrible," said Kelly Kibby.
Kibby is a trained examiner in Pflugerville for the State of Texas. He has 37 years of trucking experience. He heard the news about the deaths of more than 50 migrants inside a tractor-trailer in San Antonio. He knows how hot these tractor trailers can get.
"On a typical Texas summer, it's 100 degrees out, it’s going to shoot that box temperature up 130, maybe 150 possibly," said Kibby.
He said that temperature combined with body heat of dozens inside is very dangerous.
"From the metal, it's absorbing heat, and put another 50 people in it and all the body heat, you are close together, it's going to expedite it, everything that’s happening. And no water, you are not going to last long," he said.
This is not the only time migrants have been found inside tractor-trailers. Just two weeks ago, U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Laredo found 80 migrants inside a tractor-trailer at a checkpoint.
They all survived, but some cases have turned deadly. Back in 2017, in San Antonio, 10 people died after being locked in a semi-truck trailer. In 2003, in Victoria, there were 19 deaths from people inside a hot tractor-trailer.
"You are totally under the control of the person operating the vehicle. Once those doors shut in the back of the trailer, you are in there unless somebody lets you out," said Kibby.
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