FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (news agencies) — A bus carrying farmworkers to a watermelon field in central Florida was sideswiped by a drunk driver and overturned in a field, killing eight people and injuring dozens of others, authorities said.
The man accused of causing Tuesday’s crash has a lengthy driving record and is being held in jail without bond.
The farmworkers were from Mexico, working on seasonal or temporary visas. Some of their names were released Wednesday afternoon.
Here’s what to know about the crash.
Around 6:40 a.m. on Tuesday, a 2001 Ford Ranger driven by Bryan Howard, 41, crossed the center line of State Road 40 and sideswiped a bus carrying 53 farmworkers to a watermelon patch at Cannon Farms in Dunnellon. The bus veered off the two-lane road that passes through horse farms, hit a tree and rolled over.
The crash happened about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Orlando.
All eight people killed were in the U.S. from Mexico on H-2A farmworker visas, officials said.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Wednesday morning that 44 Mexican citizens were on the bus, hired by a Mexican American farmer to work on the watermelon farm under temporary or seasonal visas. Mexico’s government later said six of the injured were in serious condition and three more were in critical condition.
Lucas Benitez, the co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, said Wednesday that it learned from the Mexican consulate that the farmworkers who were killed were from at least five different states in Mexico.
Six of the dead have been identified: Evarado Ventura Hernández, 30; Cristian Salazar Villeda, 24; Alfredo Tovar Sánchez, 20; Isaías Miranda Pascal, 21; José Heriberto Fraga Acosta, 27; and Manuel Pérez Ríos, 46.
Gamaliel Marcel, of Tallahassee, told media on Wednesday that he and Salazar Villeda were childhood friends in Mexico. Salazar Villeda got married in March and the couple had a 5-year-old daughter, Marcel added.
“I feel so bad, especially because I knew him my whole life,” he said. “He was always the most respectful but brought out a smile when you needed it.”
Evarado Ventura Hernández’s mother, Rosalina Hernández Martínez, said Wednesday that her son had told her the work he did on Florida farms was “very hard,” but that he was happy.
“It hurts,” she said. “A piece of my heart is gone.”
The Mexican consulate in Orlando was providing support at the AdventHealth Ocala hospital, where many of the injured were taken.
Andres Sequera, a director of mission and ministry for AdventHealth hospitals, said chaplains were visiting the injured workers, and that they “were in good spirits for what they have been through.”
Farms across Florida use about 50,000 H-2A workers each year, more than any other state, according to the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association.
The workers travel to Florida on seasonal or temporary visas to harvest farm fruits and vegetables.
These workers were in Marion County, which is in the north-central part of Florida. The county is best known for its rolling countryside, which stands out from much of the state’s typical flat geography. Thoroughbred horse farms are common in the hills outside of Ocala, which is the largest city in the region. Interstate 75 also cuts through Marion County.
Bryan Maclean Howard, 41, was arrested hours after the crash and remained jailed without bond in Ocala.
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