The Region - News from July 23, 1987

A U.S. Border Patrol agent used his car to keep a driverless vehicle on the road for more than a mile at speeds up to 50 m.p.h. after a smuggler jumped out and left it in gear with two illegal aliens in the trunk on Interstate 8 near Pine Valley in San Diego County. Patrol spokesman Wayne Kirkpatrick said Agent Steve Maxon shepherded the out-of-control car away from boulder-strewn hillsides as it raced down a steep grade and finally brought the car to a halt, freeing two Mexican youths from the trunk. “If the car (had) gone through or over the guard rail, most certainly these people would have died,” Kirkpatrick said. He said Maxon, 43, began chasing the runaway car after the driver and several illegal aliens jumped out and one of the fugitives yelled that his brother was in the car’s trunk. The rescued pair and two others were held for deportation.