Farmworkers’ bus crashes, killing 8
OCALA, Fla. — A bus carrying farmworkers collided with a pickup truck and overturned Tuesday in central Florida, killing eight people and injuring about 40, authorities said.
The bus was transporting 53 farmworkers at about 6:40 a.m. when it collided with a truck in Marion County, about 80 miles northwest of Orlando, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
Authorities say the bus swerved off State Road 40, a straight but hilly two-lane road that passes through farms. It crashed through a fence and ended up on its side in a field. The workers were headed to Cannon Farms in Dunellon, which has been harvesting watermelons.
Photos taken by the Ocala Star-Banner show the bus on its side with both its emergency rear door and top hatch open. The truck that hit it shows extensive damage to the driver’s side.
Vehicle crashes were the leading cause of job-related deaths among farmworkers in 2022, the latest year for which federal statistics are available. Crashes accounted for 81 of 171 fatalities.
It was not immediately known whether the bus had seat belts.
“We will be closed today out of respect to the losses and injuries endured early this morning in the accident that took place to the Olvera Trucking Harvesting Corp.,” Cannon Farms announced on its Facebook page. “Please pray with us for the families and the loved ones involved in this tragic accident.”
Cannon Farms describes itself as family-owned for more than 100 years, with a focus on peanuts and watermelons.
No one answered the phone at Olvera Trucking on Tuesday afternoon. The company had recently advertised for a temporary driver to transport workers to watermelon fields; the driver would then operate harvesting equipment. The pay was $14.77 an hour.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the workers on the bus are migrants, but a Department of Labor document shows that Olvera applied for 43 H-2A workers to harvest watermelons at Cannon Farms this month. The company offered a base rate of $14.77 an hour, with promises of housing and transportation to and from the fields.
The H-2A program allows U.S. employers or agents who meet certain regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals into the country to fill temporary agricultural jobs.