A bus without seat belts crashed, killing 8 farmworkers. Will Florida change its laws?
The 19 farmworkers crammed into a van meant to carry 15, headed back from a day’s work in Florida’s citrus fields.
As the van tried to pass a semitrailer, it veered off Interstate 95 in Fort Pierce. Nine workers, all from Mexico, died. The rest were injured.
That was in April 2004. Florida lawmakers reconvened the next year to consider safety issues related to migrant and seasonal labor. In 2006, the state passed a law requiring seat belts for vehicles that take farm laborers to work.
“We’re going to send a message across the country that we care about those workers,” Democratic Sen. Anthony Hill said then. Senators stood to applaud a small group of farmworkers who watched from the Capitol gallery.
Earlier this month, a similar tragedy played out. A driver swerved into the path of a bus full of migrant workers on their way to watermelon fields in Dunnellon, killing eight and injuring dozens.
Because of an exception written into the 2006 law, the bus that crashed May 14 in Marion County didn’t have seat belts.
Farm labor advocates say they want to bring up seat belt and other safety reforms when legislators next convene in Tallahassee. But it’s unclear if any momentum from 20 years ago remains — or whether the Marion County crash will reignite interest.
In the early 2000s, lawmakers were inundated with a series of news stories and reports about poor conditions faced by people working in Florida’s agricultural fields. Florida’s governor at the time, Jeb Bush, called for laws to protect farmworkers from exploitation and advocated for pay raises for laborers.
But a state legislative commission dedicated to migrant labor issues, including transportation concerns in light of the 2004 crash, hasn’t met since 2006 following lack of interest from legislative leaders. Lawmakers in recent years ignored calls for safety reforms like mandatory water breaks and access to shade for workers. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has long pushed for cracking down on illegal immigration and migrant labor, this year signed a bill banning local governments from passing ordinances that provide workers protection from the heat.
In the two weeks since the crash, DeSantis hasn’t posted on social media or held news conferences to talk about those who died or were injured.
State lawmakers aren’t expected to meet again until March next year. Republican Sen. Nick DiCeglie, who currently heads the Senate transportation committee, said he’s open to discussing “what we can do to make our folks safer.” He said the Marion County crash got his attention, and that “any time there’s awful tragedy like this, we in the Legislature need to take an opportunity to see what we can do.”
DiCeglie also mentioned a bill he has pushed the past two years to require interlock devices be installed in vehicles when someone refuses to take a breathalyzer test. The driver arrested for the Marion County crash has been charged with DUI manslaughter and told law enforcement that he had smoked marijuana oil and taken prescription medication.
Sen. Keith Perry, R-Gainesville, represents the district where the crash occurred but is term-limited and will leave office before the 2025 session. He said he thinks the safety of farmworker buses “should absolutely be looked at. What’s the answer, I wouldn’t know.”
Other lawmakers also expressed concern about the crash but were thin on specifics about any legislative changes they wanted to consider in next year’s session.
“Seat belts have proven to save lives. The lives of farmworkers are as important as those of other individuals,” Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, said in a statement. “Our laws should reflect that.”
Vehicle crashes have long been a leading cause of death among Florida farmworkers, something both state lawmakers and news stories noted in the early 2000s. Around the same time, reports raised alarms about pesticide exposures possibly causing birth defects among the children of field laborers.
Former Sen. JD Alexander, a citrus grower, said this month that the 2004 crash in Ft. Pierce inspired him to sponsor the 2006 seat belt law, which passed unanimously.
Alexander said he believes he and others exempted large buses from the seat belt requirement because they thought they were safer.
“We’ve done a lot of things to make things safer over the years,” said Alexander, who is now retired. “Some worked and some probably need to be looked at again.”
Alexander’s cousin, former Rep. Baxter Troutman, helped pass the farmworker seat belt bill in the House. He also said the bill’s exemption was because lawmakers thought the size of the bus was protection enough. (To this day, only nine U.S. states require seat belts on large school buses for transporting children. Florida is one of those.)
“Obviously now you can say well, ‘Told you so,’” said Troutman, who, like Alexander, is a grandson and heir of citrus magnate Ben Hill Griffin Jr. “Hindsight’s always perfect.”
Karen Woodall, a longtime farmworker advocate, said she expects advocates will bring up the seat belt issue during the next legislative session. But whether they find lawmakers willing to take it up as a bill and get it across the finish line is another question.
Woodall added that passing a law requiring seat belts wouldn’t be enough. She said unless there are ways to enforce the law and inspect farm buses, workers are still at risk.
The Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, part of the state’s powerful agriculture lobby, said it supports seat belts in farmworker vehicles “if the regulation is meaningful and workable to ensure compliance.”
The association recently called a federal rule requiring seat belts in some employer-provided transportation “impractical.” (That rule also excludes many large buses from the seat belt requirement.)
In a statement to the U.S. Department of Labor, the group highlighted the “extreme cost and burden” it would put on growers to retrofit buses with seat belts.
And back in 2005, when state lawmakers first considered a bill requiring seat belts for farmworker vehicles, the association said it would only support it if it applied to similar vehicles for all other industries, saying agriculture shouldn’t be the only one singled out.
Rep. Rick Roth, R-West Palm Beach, is a fruit and vegetable farmer in Palm Beach County who has employed H-2A workers. Roth said the next session is still too far away for lawmakers to begin discussing proposed legislation.
Roth said transporting workers far distances in a labor bus meant for local use isn’t a good idea, but he’s not sure whether there needs to be a law regulating that.
He also said the new federal rule already makes some changes to worker seat belt requirements, including that they must be used in buses already equipped with them and that such seat belts can’t be allowed to fall into disrepair.
“I just know there’s lots of conversation going on right now in the industry,” Roth said. “We’re all paying attention.”
Margarita Romo, who has been advocating for farmworkers for decades, said, too often, decisions by the Legislature come down to money. But she pointed to successes she and other advocates have had over the years, including reforms for pesticide use and getting Republican Gov. Rick Scott to sign a bill in 2014 that allows some non-U.S. citizens to receive in-state tuition at Florida colleges.
Romo said she’d be interested in revisiting the laws requiring seat belt use for migrant farm worker transportation, saying she’s not sure if it’s being enforced for the smaller vehicles that lawmakers required in 2006.
But she said her first priority is helping the injured men as they face medical bills and lost jobs.
“This is really not the time to fight,” Romo said. “Right now we need to make sure we take care of those who are hurt.”