19-Year-Old Migrant Farmworker Dies in Florida Bus Crash; Mother Says He Was Saving for Marriage and Home

Florida Bus Crash 19-Year-Old Farmworker Died farmworker Saving for Marriage and Home

By Jackelyn Cornejo , Parent Herald May 17, 02:34 am

Photo: (Photo : Stefano Mazzola/Getty Images )

One of the Mexican farmworkers perished in Florida when a pickup truck sideswiped their bus had been in the U.S. for just 15 days, hoping to work and save money for his forthcoming marriage, his mom discloses.

19-Year-Old Bus Crash Victim Was Saving for Marriage and Home

Nineteen-year-old Alfredo Tovar Sánchez had arrived in the U.S. through a temporary workers program. He never learned that his fiancée is two months pregnant, his mom, María Sánchez, shared in an interview with Telemundo News.

"I don't know how I can go on without my son," she said crying at her home in Mexico. "I am overwhelmed with pain. I don't know how I can endure this."

Sánchez explained that her son planned to spend two months in Florida harvesting melons to save money for building a house and getting married.

Family and friends gathered at Sánchez's home in a poor region of central Mexico on Wednesday to mourn her son, who lived there with her, his five sisters, and his fiancée.

Sánchez expressed concern that her son's 17-year-old fiancée would face many difficulties once the baby is born.

"If the man responsible has been arrested, then I only ask for justice," Sánchez said. Eight of the 44 farmworkers on the bus died, and seven were hospitalized, with two in critical condition on Thursday, according to the Mexican consul in Orlando, Juan Sabines Guerrero.

Sánchez was one of six deceased individuals identified by authorities. The others included Evarado Ventura Hernández, 30; Cristian Salazar Villeda, 24; Isaías Miranda Pascal, 21; José Heriberto Fraga Acosta, 27; and Manuel Pérez Ríos, 46.

Florida Bus Carrying Farmworkers Crashed

The farmworkers were headed to harvest watermelons at a farm in Dunnellon, Florida when a pickup truck hit their bus at 6:40 a.m. on Tuesday.

Similar to the rest of the farmworkers, Tovar Sánchez was in the United States under the H-2A temporary agricultural workers program, designed to aid U.S. farmers in filling temporary positions.

With the H-2A visa, farmworkers can stay in the U.S. for up to a year but cannot bring family members with them. According to farmworker associations, the majority of workers engaged in the accident had no family members residing in Florida.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated that a Mexican American farmer had hired the workers to labor on a watermelon farm. He stated that the Mexican consulates in Miami and Orlando were aiding the victims.

The pickup truck driver, Bryan Maclean, 41, was arrested and entered a plea of not guilty on Wednesday for charges of driving under the influence-manslaughter. He had been involved in a crash three days earlier and had taken a mix of drugs hours before Tuesday's accident, as revealed in court.

Karen Patricio, the central Florida organizer for the Farmworker Association of Florida, stated that her group is working to ensure the injured workers receive the necessary medical and mental health care.

"This was a deeply tragic accident. For those unfamiliar with our health care system, this whole situation is overwhelming," Patricio said. "The conditions most of these workers already endure are terrible. Adding the accident's trauma on top of that is indescribable."