Seven dead in I-95 crash

[Guest guest]

Saw these posted on a web site and thought I'd pass them on...

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_04c62f78d54041250057.html

Seven dead in I-95 crash

By Wolfe and Will Vash, Palm Beach Post Staff Writers

Friday, April 2, 2004

Seven dead in I-95 crash

Seven migrant workers were killed and 12 more were injured late Thursday afternoon when the Econoline van they were riding in struck the median on southbound Interstate 95 and rolled over four times, just short of the Okeechobee exit that was supposed to take them back to Fort Pierce, officials said.

All 19 were ejected from the van during the crash. All of the men in the van were believed to be Mexican immigrants. The accident was yet another in a long line of fatal wrecks involving immigrant workers. In 1990, 10 workers from the same family were killed when a van ran off a remote country road and plunged into a canal near Clewiston.

The crash came less than four months after a Palm Beach Post series, " Modern-Day Slavery, " documented how Florida's migrant labor system abuses poor farm workers from Mexico. The series noted how large numbers of farm workers are packed tightly into vans or trucks and how some are killed or maimed in accidents.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040323/NEWS/403230391/1004

Published Tuesday, March 23, 2004

LAKE WALES

Grove Worker Run Over, Dies

A 54-year-old grove worker was killed early Monday when he was struck and run over by a piece of equipment, Polk County sheriff's officials said.

J. Angel Franco-Cortez was killed near Lake Wales about 7:25 a.m. when he walked into the path of the equipment, known as a grove goat, said sheriff's spokeswoman Michal Shanley.

The equipment was driven by Angel , 51, of Babson Park, Shanley said.

was backing the equipment when Franco-Cortez walked into its path, Shanley said. He died in the grove off Old Forty Road.

The death appears to be accidental, she said.