Tragedy struck in Central Florida on Tuesday when a bus carrying migrant farm workers collided with a pickup truck, resulting in at least eight fatalities and dozens of injuries. The retired school bus, carrying 53 workers, veered off the road, hit a tree, and overturned in Marion County, west of Ocala, Florida.
According to Lt. Patrick Riordan of the Florida Highway Patrol, about 40 passengers, including the pickup truck driver, were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment. Some of the workers were from Mexico, as confirmed by Mexico’s foreign affairs secretary, Alicia Bárcena.
The authorities have not released the names of the deceased, as many of the workers were from abroad, making it difficult to notify their next of kin. The bus was reportedly transporting workers employed at a watermelon farm in the area.
Cannon Farms, the farm and market where the workers were employed, announced its closure out of respect for the victims of the accident. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office stated that the road where the incident occurred would be closed for most of the day.
Sheriff Billy Woods mentioned that migrant workers arriving in Marion County each spring to harvest produce often travel on buses like the one involved in the crash. It remains unclear whether the passengers were wearing seatbelts at the time of the collision.
Transportation-related incidents are a significant cause of death among agricultural workers in the United States, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting nearly half of the deaths in 2020 were due to such incidents. The U.S. Department of Labor will soon implement a rule requiring farmworkers on temporary visas to have access to seatbelts on employer-provided transportation.
Lt. Riordan stated that it could take up to six months to determine the cause of the crash. This is a developing story that has left the community in mourning and raised concerns about the safety of migrant workers in the agricultural industry.
