CALIFORNIA
HIGHWAY PATROL (CHP): DRIVER RAN STOP SIGN IN FOGGY CRASH THAT KILLED 5 IN
JOAQUIN COUNTY
Associated Press
Posted: 01/16/2015 12:12:32 PM PST Updated:
about 3 hours ago
STOCKTON -- Authorities say a crash that killed five men
in Northern California farm country happened when one of the drivers ran a stop
sign during thick morning fog.
A truck broadsided a van carrying seven farmworkers this
week east of Stockton in San Joaquin County. The California Highway Patrol said
Thursday that neither driver was licensed to drive.
The Sacramento Bee reports (http://bit.ly/1IQruvu ) that
investigators say the van failed to wait at a stop sign Tuesday at State Route
4. Visibility was less than 100 feet at the time.
Five people in the van were pronounced dead at the
scene. Two people in the van and two people in the truck survived.
No criminal charges were immediately announced.
//_________________________________________//
A violent crash on a foggy
farm-lined road in Stockton that killed five men Tuesday was caused
when the driver of one of the vehicles ran a stop sign, according to the
California Highway Patrol.
And neither driver involved the crash was licensed to
drive, CHP officials said.
Seven men, all farmworkers from the Mexican state of
Puebla, were on their way to work inside a silver 1998 Chevrolet Venture
minivan about 6:50 a.m., when the vehicle was broadsided by a 2004 Nissan Titan
pickup driving about 55 miles per hour on Highway 4, just outside of
Farmington.
The crash, which launched the van onto its top and into
a nearby vineyard, was caused when the van failed to wait at a stop sign on Van
Allen Road before proceeding across Highway 4, CHP’s investigation found. The
two men in the truck were Hector Campos, 41, and Hector Carrillo, 30, the
vehicle’s driver. They were both wearing seat belts and suffered minor
injuries, the CHP reported.
Five men riding in the minivan were pronounced dead
Tuesday. They were: Simei Teta-Betancourt, 29; Juan Minas-Rodriguez, 42; Oscar
Macario-Nasario, 32; Antonio Ocotino-Morales, 24; and Rudolfo Carrillo, 42,
according to the California Highway Patrol.
Initial reports indicated that three people survived the
crash, but the CHP said Thursday that four survived: Campos and Hector
Carrillo, and Euglogio Rosas and Rodrigo Ramos-Carillo, who were in the van.
Rosas, 27, was wearing a seat belt, while Ramos-Carillo, 25, was not, according
to the CHP. There was an initial miscount, CHP officials said, because several
of the victims were transported in a single ambulance.
CHP Officer James Smith said Rudolfo Carrillo, the van’s
driver, absorbed the full impact of the crash and was pronounced dead at the
scene.
It was not clear Thursday whether Hector Carrillo would
face any charges for driving without a license.
Ramos-Carillo and his five companions who died were
partially ejected from the van, hanging out shattered windows on the shoulder
of the highway.
All were farmworkers on their way to a day in the field,
pruning grapevines, according to witnesses and firefighters who spoke with
survivors at the scene.
Heavy fog on the road at the time of the crash, about
6:50 a.m., made visibility beyond 100 to 200 feet next to impossible, CHP
officials said.
The U.S. Department of Labor was also investigating the
incident to determine whether the farmworkers were being transported by their
employers and whether those employers had followed legal safety standards,
including ensuring company vehicles are driven by licensed drivers, that they
had appropriate insurance, functional headlights and enough working seat belts
to accommodate all passengers.
“We enforce labor laws as they apply to migrant and
seasonal workers,” said Cesar Avila, with the department’s agriculture
division. “If it was a carpool situation, we would still probably meet up with
the grower and just discuss the issues with them, probably wouldn’t be liable
for it.”
Witnesses and firefighters who responded to the crash
said Tuesday that the pickup belonged to a nearby nursery: Valley Crest Tree
Company. Officials there have declined to comment.
“Unfortunately, in situations where we find out that
workers are being transported, the vehicles that are used don’t always meet our
standards,” Avila said. “These accidents are problematic because one life lost
is too much.”
Mexican Consul General Carlos González Gutiérrez said
Tuesday that consular officials had contacted the victims’ relatives and
offered financial assistance to send the remains of their family members to
Mexico.
Foggy conditions on Highway 4 may also have contributed
to another crash early Thursday, in which a semitrailer and pickup collided
along Stockton Street and Highway 4.
The driver of the pickup, who was not immediately
identified, was killed on impact.
//__________________________________________________________//
CHP confirms 5 farmworkers died in foggy San Joaquin
County crash
By Marissa Lang
mlang@sacbee.com
01/13/2015 9:18 AM
01/13/2015 10:42 PM
STOCKTON – The scene that emerged from the fog Tuesday
morning was a gruesome one: a gold van upside down with passengers hanging from
its crushed doors and shattered windows, a red pickup truck with two injured
people inside, gasoline puddles and personal belongings scattered on the muddy
shoulder of Highway 4.
Five men died there, at the intersection of Highway 4
and Van Allen Road, in a violent collision about 6:55 a.m.
According to the California Highway Patrol, the van, carrying
six people, was heading north, crossing Highway 4 from Van Allen Road, when it
was broadsided by the pickup.
Three survived – the two people in the red pickup truck
that was traveling east bound on Highway 4, and one farm worker who was riding
in the van from Stockton to a day in the field, pruning grape vines. None of
the men involved in the collision were immediately identified, though a
spokeswoman with the Sacramento Mexican Consulate confirmed that some were
Mexican nationals.
Farmington's volunteer firefighters, the first to the
scene, said it was ugly, and knew immediately they would need to work fast.
"We immediately began to triage the victims,"
Farmington Fire Department spokesman Capt. Jeff Briggs said.
Moises Cortes, a foreman at a farm off Highway 4, said
he rushed to the scene to help firefighters speak to the wounded man who
survived. He only spoke Spanish, and was dazed from the collision.
While he was trying to convey information from the
survivor to emergency responders, seven ambulances arrived from nearby
hospitals. The brother of one of the men in the van also came running over,
Cortes said. He had been planning to meet his brother in the fields. When he
saw the carnage, he began to cry.
“I told him to go ahead and cry,” Cortes said. “What
more could I do? This is one of the worst accidents I’ve ever seen.”
California Highway Patrol officers said poor visibility
at dawn was, at least in part, to blame.
"If there had more visibility, the drivers may have
seen each other sooner," CHP Officer James Smith said. "They could
have slowed down, which would have produced less injury – or they might have
completely avoided the collision. ”
At the time of the crash, CHP said, visibility was about
100 to 200 feet. As firefighters cut the door off the van to remove the driver,
who was wearing a seatbelt but absorbed the full impact of the collision, the
fog grew denser.
"About one hour into the call, I’d say visibility
dropped down to maybe 20 feet," Briggs said. “It was really bad.”
Witnesses and firefighters said the pickup belonged to a
nearby nursery: Valley Crest Tree Co. Officials there declined to comment
Tuesday.
As the day stretched on, news of the accident traveled
to local growers, who wondered who the men were and where they were going.
An employee at the local Circle K gas-station market
believed the men who were killed to be her "regular guys," a group of
six Hispanic farm workers who stopped in daily for coffee and pastries before
their morning shifts.
They hadn't come in Tuesday.
"They were all really good, hardworking
people," Pamila Ramsey said. “I just keep thinking about their families,
so many families. It’s so sad.”
Pieces of the workers' lunches scattered among glass and
pieces of plastic along the highway's shoulder was all that remained once CHP
cleared the scene.
Other than the driver, Smith said the van's other
passengers were not likely wearing seat belts. It has not been determined if
the van’s driver stopped at the stop sign on Van Allen Road before proceeding
to cross onto Highway 4.
Foggy conditions are expected to continue throughout the
Central Valley for the rest of the work week, according to the National Weather
Service.
Fog typically forms when cold air passes over warmer
water or land, especially after the ground has been soaked by rain. Though it’s
been nearly three weeks since the region last saw any significant rainfall, fog
also is possible anywhere near water, such as the many braided waterways of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where Tuesday's fatal accident occurred.