Posted on 12/08/2005 12:30:45 PM PST by LouAvul
Farm workers know when an orange is ripe for picking or how to prune a peach tree, but many have poor driving skills, which puts everyone's lives at risk, road safety experts said Wednesday.
"A lot of them just don't know how to drive," said Abel Serrano, one of about 20 farm labor contractors and farm representatives who came to Visalia to hear about the Farm Worker Motor Vehicle Safety program developed by the California State University, Fresno.
Many farm workers are recent immigrants who can't read road signs in English and didn't start driving until arriving in California's farm belt. Often, they're undocumented and can't apply for driver's licenses or take a driver's education class, said Bert Mason, a professor of agricultural economics at Fresno State who helped develop the program. Although farming is dangerous work, field workers are four times more likely to die from an accident on their way to work than at the work site because they lack basic driving skills, according to the Department of Industrial Relations.
About 20 farm workers died and 194 were injured in car accidents in 2000-2001, the last year California Highway Patrol analyzed data. Most of the crashes happened between 5 and 7 a.m., and often involved drivers who didn't follow road signs setting speed limits or indicating a one-way road, CHP data showed.
Inspired by these grim statistics, Fresno State raised state and federal funds and partnered with the CHP in 2003 to develop posters, board games and a video to provide basic training on American road rules. Farmers left Wednesday's briefing with bags full of the materials for their workers.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Their biggest problem is that they are learning to drive in California, and being taught by Californians.
But hey, Democrat governors will give them drivers licenses wont they?
Listen, if you've never driven in France let me assure you , no one could drive as bad,,,except the Spanish...well the Maltese... well... oh heck!
Although farming is dangerous work, field workers are four times more likely to die from an accident on their way to work than at the work site because they lack basic driving skills,
Take a bus, get a ride, walk to work or have their employers pick them up.
Farmers left Wednesday's briefing with bags full of the materials for their workers.
Will their workers be able to read the materials?
Cheap labor ain't.
Ain't what?
Ain't cheap!
I personally prefer the driving style of Italians, to say nothing of the South Americans in South Florida: Traffic lights are a suggestion, not a rule.
And by extension, are also four-times more likely to kill an innocent citizen because they lack basic driving skills.
Naturally, they're also four-times more likely to flee the scene of an accident. Because they're here illegally, they do not want to come in contact with law enforcement, who might deport them, so they run and hide.
The liberals' solution is to dumb down the driver's test so that an illiterate Mexican with less than a moth of driving practice can pass it and give them all driver's licenses.
Not to mention how many illegals killed our citizens in these crashes and the fact that they drive drunk on the weekends and are a menace wherever there is a concentration of illegals.
ping
"Not to mention how many illegals killed our citizens in these crashes and the fact that they drive drunk on the weekends and are a menace wherever there is a concentration of illegals."
Don't get me started. A few years ago, in north MS, an illegal ran over and killed a little girl at her school bus stop while trying to pass someone on the right shoulder. Of course, he fled the scene and was later caught. I used to see lots of "immigrants" buying beer for lunch at the C-Store near my old apartment. It's surely not just on the weekends.
Most illegals don't have prior driving experience cuz they never owned a car.
Reason never owned a car:
Auto insurance strictly enforced in Mexico.
Net, net let's give 'em licenses & not require them to be insured.
Just being a good host.
Former Texas Gov. George W. Bush has little problem giving illegal aliens drivers licenses.
When I lived on the border, I knew lots of nice Anglo ladies who kept their little "slaves" in the spareroom. Cooking, cleaning, and childcare for practically nothing. But, at the time, if you were caught transporting an illegal you got your car impounded and sold at auction--how embarrassing for the nice Scarlett O'Haras who got caught.
Given these statistics, there should be more medical liabilities involving illegal immigrant wrecks, but no problem; the assembly in California has been working a bill that would subsidize illegal immigrants car insurance, no joke.
Then it says here they cant read the signs, but they didn’t need a Farm Worker Motor Vehicle Safety study to prove this. Most cant read, studies have already shown that half of the Los Angels residents are illiterate whether it is English or Spanish. But even if they could read, their kids are beginning to paint graffiti over every highway sign in CA, has anybody noticed? So what good are signs in the long run for a sate that will soon have a large number of its citizens who do not even have a high school education?
But not to worry, all these problems will be worked out when they get drivers licenses, because after all if they have them that guarantees they can read the traffic signs and drive safely, and will have insurance….
This is anecdotal, just what I read in my locale--but when they get drunk, they get very very drunk, like an occasional bender. Though they don't do it very often--
Don't worry! Soon their status will be adjusted to legal guestworker and they will be able to get licenses so they can kill citizens without breaking the law.
/sarcasm
Tractors are strange vehicles. They don't go fast, but they still overturn in the ditch and there is little the driver can do to alter the trajectory.
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
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Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!
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