Vehicle safety affecting farm workers in California

[Guest guest]

Hello All,

Interesting article in this morning's Sacramento Bee.

CHP buckling down on farm workers' safety

By Lesli A. Maxwell -- Bee Capitol Bureau

Published 2:15 a.m. PST Monday, April 1, 2002

It took 13 deaths on a foggy road in western Fresno County, but in less

than three years, thousands of California farm workers have seen the risky

trip to their jobs in the fields turn into a much safer journey.

A whirlwind of reform legislation swept through the Legislature in the

months after that August 1999 crash near Five Points and required for the

first time that farm labor vans be outfitted with seat belts. All parties

agree that the California Highway Patrol's aggressive public relations

campaign and, more importantly, its heavy enforcement efforts have kept the

death toll of farm workers riding in regulated vans in the San Joaquin

Valley at zero since the Five Points collision.

And beginning today, the homemade, sideways-facing wooden benches bolted to

the floors of labor vans -- the last vestige of the shadowy and dangerous

world of farm-worker transportation that was legal for decades in

California -- will be outlawed and replaced by modern, forward-facing seats.

The ban of the wooden benches is the final piece of reform law spawned by

the high-profile crash.

Policymakers and public safety officials learned from the devastation of

the Five Points crash that installing seat belts wouldn't be enough to

prevent a repeat of the grisly scene where 15 farm workers squeezed side by

side on benches rocketed forward, crushing one another when the van struck

a tractor-trailer rig. Only two workers survived.

Migrant workers picking lettuce last week in a field in Huron, southwest of

Fresno, attest to the turnaround.

" The new laws are good because they are created to help save lives, " said

, 35, from Yuma, Ariz., who says he feels safer traveling

to the fields in California than he does in other states where he works.

, who has worked the Huron lettuce harvest since he was 16, remembers

season after season when fellow workers would be killed or seriously

injured in van crashes.

While farm-worker advocates say the arrival of the bench-ban deadline is

good news, they insist that eradication of the crude seats can't be the

final round in the fight to overhaul farm-worker transportation.

They say enforcement is woefully lacking in other agricultural areas of the

state -- the Sacramento, Imperial and Salinas valleys -- where there are no

teams of CHP officers dedicated to cracking down on unsafe labor vans and

drivers as there is in the San Joaquin Valley. Pending legislation would

finance expansion of the CHP enforcement teams into other areas.

The 10 CHP officers and one sergeant who patrol the Valley's highways and

rural roads for violators will crack down on owners and drivers of farm

labor vans still equipped with the rickety benches. Van owners had until

midnight Sunday -- a deadline timed to fall on the 75th birthday of the

late United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez -- to remove the benches and

replace them with forward-facing seats.

Vans found without factory-made forward-facing seats will not be certified

by the CHP, and drivers and owners will face stiff penalties. CHP officers

in the Valley say they expect to still see a fairly large number of vans

with wooden benches after the deadline, even though drivers have known for

a year and a half that they must replace them.

Thursday, four days before the bench ban deadline, 19 farm workers suffered

minor to moderate injuries after a van they were riding in collided with a

car near Orange Cove, southeast of Fresno.

The van had seat belts, was CHP-certified and outfitted with the benches.

" We're still seeing quite a few of the bench seats, " said CHP Lt. Ray

Madrigal, who oversees the Safety and Farm Labor Vehicle Education or SAFE

team that covers the Valley counties between Modesto and Bakersfield. " It's

impossible to give an exact number, but it's probably a little less than 50

percent of them that still have the wooden benches. "

That number is probably much higher in the Sacramento, Salinas and Imperial

valleys, where there are no SAFE teams. Last June, nine farm workers riding

in a van without seats, benches or seat belts were seriously injured when

their driver crashed head-on into a pickup on Highway 12 in San Joaquin

County.

Farm labor contractors, who rely on drivers known as raiteros to deliver

crews to the fields, put the number of bench-equipped vans still on the

road much lower than CHP officials.

" I think we're down to about 20 percent, " said Adam Beas, a Madera-based

contractor who employs up to 5,500 workers during peak harvest months. Most

are shuttled by 150 vans owned by labor crews' bosses and other workers.

Well-equipped, CHP-certified vans dominate the roadways now, Beas said.

" They're up to snuff, " he said. " They've got all the stickers, the phone

numbers, the belts and the seats. It's been a monumental change that has

driven a lot of the bad guys out of business. " The CHP's own numbers seem

to back up Beas' assessment that traveling to and from the fields is not

nearly as deadly.

From 1994 to the Five Points crash in 1999, 25 farm workers died in traffic

accidents involving regulated farm labor vans in the San Joaquin Valley.

Since then, there have been no deaths in the Valley resulting from

accidents that involved a regulated farm labor vehicle, according to CHP

statistics. Between the beginning of 2000 and June 30, 2001, there were 27

accidents involving farm labor vehicles, and 87 people suffered injuries.

Farm-worker advocates agree that the decline in traffic deaths is

encouraging but still argue that holding farmers liable for the safety of

the workers that tie their vines, prune their trees and harvest their crops

is the best protection. Most farmers pay labor contractors to hire work

crews.

Getting workers to and from the fields used to be the growers'

responsibility. Then farm labor contractors took over before shifting the

transportation job to raiteros. Raiteros often are labor crew bosses who

find workers and make sure they show up in the fields. Though it's illegal,

many raiteros charge workers a fee for a ride to the fields and often make

it a condition of employment.

" We really need to get to the point where growers can no longer hide behind

the veil of labor contractors, " said Schneider, executive director of

the Fresno-based Central California Legal Services.

Growers such as Craig Pedersen, a Kings County farmer, dispute that they

should be legally responsible for workers they don't directly hire and

employ.

" For me to shoulder the responsibility of someone else's business is

irresponsible, " Pedersen said. " The workers are invaluable to our business,

and of course we are concerned about their safety, but it comes down to

pure economics for the farmer. "

Madrigal says the SAFE team officers will use their four enforcement drills

each week to root out vans still equipped with benches, relying heavily on

information from workers, contractors and growers who tip them off where

illegal vans might be operating.

Drivers caught transporting farm workers on benches will be charged with a

misdemeanor and face fines of $1,000 plus $500 for each passenger on board,

up to $5,000.

CHP officers will permanently impound vans caught operating illegally more

than three times.

" That gives us enforcement power not only over drivers but against the

vehicles as well, " Madrigal said, " and we can get them off the road for

good. "

------------------------------------------------------------------------

About the Writer

---------------------------

The Fresno Bee's Lesli A. Maxwell can be reached at (916) 326-5541 or

lmaxwell@.... The Fresno Bee's Louis Galvan contributed to this

report.

------------------------------------------------------------------------