|
Home Search |
Published on Sunday, April 4, 2004
in the Miami Herald
FORT PIERCE, Fla. - Family members clutching photos of loved ones began on Friday to identify victims of a rollover crash that killed seven Mexican migrant workers and injured 12.
The crash a day earlier ejected all 19 occupants and scattered bodies across Interstate 95.
The van involved in the crash appeared overcrowded and the driver did not have the appropriate license, said Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Tim Frith.
Rosa Rodriguez-Garcia went to the Fort Pierce coroner's office with an album of family photos for one victim, Jose Luis Garcia Pichardo, her brother-in-law. She said Garcia Pichardo came to Florida three years ago to work in the orange groves. He would send money home to his wife, 6-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son in San Geronimo, Mexico.
"They were very poor," Rodriguez-Garcia said in Spanish. "He left early in the morning and returned home late to give the family money for food. It was difficult work."
By late Friday, only two other victims had been identified: Jose R. Rodriguez and Juan Garcia. Their ages and hometowns were not available.
Frith said officials were working with family members and employer Circle H. Citrus to identify the other four victims, most of whom had no official identification.
"It's going to be a long, drawn-out process," Frith said. "My understanding is some of these poor gentlemen are working here and don't know anyone. They're simply here to make money."
The injured were spread among five regional hospitals. On Friday, four were in critical condition. Another four remained hospitalized and four had been released.
Frith said authorities were looking into the responsibilities of driver Salvadore Leon and Circle H. Citrus to the van. Leon was undergoing surgery Friday at St. Lucie Medical Center. His condition was not available.
The 2001 Ford 350 cargo van normally seats 15, but investigators have not determined if modifications were made or how the passengers were seated, so it would be "premature" to definitively say the vehicle was overloaded, Frith said.
"Obviously the load was a big factor in this crash. You're required for every occupant to have a proper seating capacity," he said. "It's something we're extremely concerned with."
Leon also did not have the appropriate license for driving passengers for hire, Frith said.
Frith said it was too early to determine whether any charges would be filed in the case.
The crash came about 5:50 p.m. Thursday after the men left work at an orange grove in Sebastian, 27 miles north of Fort Pierce, where most of the men lived.
"It's a very heart-wrenching accident," Frith said. "I haven't seen (seven) fatalities in one vehicle in my career."
Witnesses said the van was swerving in its lane and then crossed into the grassy median and rolled over four times, ejecting all 19 occupants. About eight miles of the interstate were closed in the aftermath.
Attorney Lisa Butler, a farmworker advocate, said crashes of the extended vans occur too frequently, often because the vehicles are overloaded, making them unstable, difficult to steer and prone to blowouts.
"In farm work, this happens over and over on the job," said Butler, with the Farmworker Unit of Florida Rural Legal Services Inc. in Fort Myers.
She said state and federal authorities should increase enforcement of labor laws, such as ensuring vehicles are safe, insured and not filled beyond capacity and that drivers have the appropriate license.
"It's totally useless to look at these tragedies simply after the fact," Butler said. "It's a serious problem for the migrant farmworker community and the agriculture industry and I think changes at several levels would help prevent these needless tragedies."
A woman who answered the phone at the citrus company declined comment Friday and referred all media calls to local law enforcement. The company ordered reporters to leave its property.
Though advocates say vehicle accidents involving migrant laborers occur at least annually, few have caused as many deaths as Thursday's crash.
In 1990, 10 workers died when their vehicle plummeted into a fog-shrouded canal in Clewiston. A year later, seven Guatemalan planters drowned in Belle Glade when their car flipped into another canal.
Laura Germino with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an advocacy group, said authorities need to better enforce labor laws.
"It's preventable - if people had been protecting workers as they're supposed to under the law," Germino said.