Survivor in smuggling deaths shares harrowing details about truck, trip

Adan Lara Vega says people were 'crying, asking for water'

By FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press, RJ Marquez - Digital Journalist

SAN ANTONIO - A Mexican man who survived being smuggled across the border in the back of a tractor-trailer that resulted in the deaths of 10 people is recovering in a San Antonio hospital.

Adan Lara Vega, 27, spoke to The Associated Press on Monday from his hospital bed. 

He described the trailer as being "full" of people, saying that there was no water, and no outside air. 

TOP STORY ON KSAT.COM: Custom truck shop blasted online for selling big rig to human smuggling suspect, owner says

Lara Vega said despite the risks, the lack of work in his hometown of Aguascalientes, Mexico, drove him to take the dangerous trip.

"It's hard over there, so then one takes the decisions," he said in Spanish.

The AP provided part of Lara Vega's interview to KSAT.

Below is the transcript of the interview which has been translated from Spanish to English. The video below/above is separated by black frames. 

Reporter: "And was there air?" 

Lara Vega: "No." 

Reporter: "Nothing?"

Lara Vega: "Nothing."

Lara Vega: "Well, when we arrived there, the trailer was already full. Frankly, I couldn't tell you how many people were actually there."

Reporter: "But full?"

Lara Vega: "The trailer was full."

Reporter: "It was full?"

Lara Vega: "uh-huh."

Reporter: "Did you have water?"

Lara Vega: "No."

Reporter: "They didn't give you water?" 

Lara Vega: "No."

Lara Vega: "Well, when I reacted, yes, I woke up, but I woke up OK. That's to say, when I woke up, I looked around everywhere, and I woke up and wanted to run but I felt kind of faint, so I fell. I fell where I was very weak. I needed to be drinking only liquids to be able to control/regulate myself."

Reporter: "And why did you decide to take the trip, no? A dangerous trip, no?"  

Lara Vega: "Well, it's the need"  

Reporter: "Yes."

Lara Vega: "It's the need more than anything."

Reporter: "There is no work in Aguascalientes." 

Lara Vega: "There is no work?"

Reporter: "Hmm."

Lara Vega: "It's hard over there, so then one makes the decisions." 

Lara Vega shares more details about trip: 


Instead, he climbed with his friends into a pitch-black, metal tractor-trailer compartment that lacked ventilation. 

"After an hour I heard ... people crying and asking for water. I, too, was sweating and people were despairing," Lara Vega told the AP. "That's when I lost consciousness."

RELATED ON KSAT.COM: Human smuggling suspect James Bradley could face death penalty, life in prison

By the time he regained it Sunday, he was in the hospital, where his ID bracelet identified him by the last name Lalravega. Mexican consulate and U.S. officials later told the AP the correct spelling was Lara Vega.  

He told the AP he climbed aboard the tractor-trailer in Laredo with six friends from the state of Aguascalientes after the group waited nearly two weeks in a safe house. 

"The guy we were with in the house told us they'd be putting us in a refrigerated compartment, a refrigerated compartment with air. But that didn't happen," he said.

The trailer was already full of people when the door opened up on a Laredo street. Lara Vega said it was so dark he couldn't see how many there were. A few were children, he said, whose voices he later heard begging for water.


He said the smugglers didn't offer passengers water, and he and his friends hadn't brought any with them. The ride to San Antonio would only be 150 miles.

Lara Vega said he never saw the driver of the tractor-trailer. He said that when people are being smuggled, they are told not to look at the faces of their handlers and it's a good idea to obey.

The packed tractor-trailer was found early Sunday outside a Walmart store on the South Side. As many as eight passengers were dead, and two more would soon die.

The driver, identified as James Matthew Bradley Jr., has been charged in the deaths.

When Lara Vega woke up, he was in a hospital tossing and turning. He said he tried to get up, "but I lost my balance and fell."

"I needed to drink a lot of water to get control of myself," he said, recounting his story in Spanish while eating lunch in his hospital bed, with a cardiac-monitoring sensor still affixed to his bare chest. He was no longer attached to an intravenous drip for rehydration. 

James Matthew Bradley Jr. exits a transport van.

Lara Vega said all his friends survived as far as he knew, though some were hospitalized. Some have cousins and siblings in San Antonio, he said.

A fellow smuggled immigrant was in the hospital bed next to him, but declined to speak with a reporter.

Another passenger on the truck told investigators that he also was from Aguascalientes. Before the trucked reached its final destination, he said, the immigrants were given different colored tape "to identify to the waiting smugglers which group they would be picking up." When the truck stopped, the rear doors were opened and people started swarming out.

Six black SUVs were waiting and were filled within a matter of minutes before driving off.

The man, identified only by his initials, said he did not see who opened the trailer doors nor did he see the truck driver, according to a criminal complaint filed against the driver.

Lara Vega, who didn't pay the smugglers, said he was hoping for a construction job. This was his second attempt to enter the United States.

He said he was deported when he tried three years ago but decided to take another chance because the economy is depressed where he lives with his wife, 4-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son.

"A person makes decisions without thinking through the consequences, but, well, thanks to God, here we are," he said.

Lara Vega said he didn't know his legal status. Mexican consular officials said they are providing legal representation for the survivors and that Lara Vega had been visited by a lawyer.


Don't miss a thing. Get email alerts from KSAT12 today.

Sign up today. It's Free.