Farm workers' poor driving skills threaten road safety

sacbee ^ | 12-8-05

[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.

[LouAvul]

can't read road signs in English [or in Spanish]

LOL!

[planekT]

But hey, Democrat governors will give them drivers licenses wont they? Give them Homing Burro's instead.

[janetgreen]

Cheap labor ain't.
Ain't what?
Ain't cheap!

The next thing we'll be forced to pay for is driving lessons for illegal aliens.

[brianl703]

Well, you see, a burro, a donkey, or a horse all have a self-preservation instinct and won't do anything stupid even if the driver/rider wants them to.

Cars just aren't like that (yet).

[undocumentedrat]

The biggest problem is most of these farm workers are illegal aliens. The majority had no regard for the law in the first place when they violated our country's sovereignty. History has shown us that those who violate immigration laws usually don't respect the law. So you really don't expect these people to obey our traffic laws do you ?

[wyattearp]

I live in Washington State. We consider all Californians to be illegal aliens. ;-)