1963 — Sep 17, Train hits migrant worker truck-bus at grade-crossing, Chualar, CA — 32
— 32 Bakersfield Californian. “State Orders Tight Bus Safety Rules.” 10-14-1963, p. 32.
— 32 Martinez, Juan D. “Bracero Memorial highway.” Bracero History Archive. No date.
— 32 National Safety Council. Accident Facts 1970 Edition. Chicago, IL: NSC, 1970. p. 63.
— 30 Haine, Edgar A. Railroad Wrecks. New York: Cornwall Books, 1993, p. 32.
— 29 Daily Independent, Corona, CA. “Bus-Train crash toll now at 29.” 9-20-1962, p. 3.
— 29 Press-Courier, Oxnard, CA. “Bus-train crash claims life of 29th bracero.” 9-19-1963, p. 32.
— 28 Bakersfield Californian. “Make-Shift Bracero Bus Hit by Train; 28 Die.” 9-18-1963, p. 1.
Narrative Information
Martinez: “….Sept. 17, 1963 the Catastrophe at Chualar Ca. the north bound Southern Pacific train at the Thomas Ranch Road & Highway 101 railroad crossing collated with the unregistered vehicle transporting 58 farm workers. The wreckage was everywhere, 56 men lay dead or dying. The train stopped 3,050 feet from the point of impact. 32 Braceros were killed and 24 others were seriously injured…” (Martinez, Juan D. “Bracero Memorial highway.” Bracero History Archive. No date. Accessed 12-15-2013.)
Newspapers
Sep 18, Associated Press: “Salinas (AP) – A speeding freight train shattered a make-shift bus jammed with Mexican field workers Tuesday, killing 28 and injuring 32 in the worst vehicle accident in California history. At least six of the injured were reported in critical condition today. The 28th victim died hours after the crash at Monterey County Hospital.
“Bodies were strewn for half a mile along both sides of the track after the crash at a farm road crossing near the town of Chualar eight miles south of Salinas. “Bodies just flew all over the place,” said Tony Vasquez, 29. He was working in a nearby lettuce field and saw the converted truck ripped into pieces. Vasquez called the California Highway Patrol and then went back to do what he could. “Two of those men died in my arms,” he said. “One body was hooked under the engine,” said Coroner Christopher Hill Jr. after visiting the scene….”Everywhere you could hear
the injured moaning.”
“Twenty-two died by the tracks. Others died as 15 ambulances rushed them to three Salinas hospitals.
“The workers at 4:30 p.m. were returning from a celery field to the Earl Meyers Co. labor camp near Salinas, 100 miles south of San Francisco. They sat on four board benches running lengthwise on the flatbed truck. Francisco Gonzales Espinosa, 34, of Salinas, the driver, said he stopped at the crossing and looked to his right. Highway Patrol Capt. Francis Simmons said Espinosa declared he did not hear or see the train until the front wheels were on the track.
“A highway patrol spokesman said Espinosa was held on an open charge of felony manslaughter,
and probably would be arraigned today.
“Engineer Robert E. Cripe of San Luis Obispo said he blasted his Southern Pacific locomotive’s whistle when he saw the bus stopped at the crossing. Astonished and shocked, Cripe saw the bus move onto the tracks. Before he could slow his train of 70 sugar beet gondola cars, rolling at 50 miles an hour, the engine hurtled into the midst of the jammed workers. It took Cripe half a mile to bring his train to a stop.
“The emergency staffs of the three hospitals were swamped…by the stream of ambulances. Eight of the 32 injured were reported in critical condition.
“Coroner Hill said identification of the dead would not be attempted until morning. “These workers are supposed to carry passports, but so far we have found only one,” Hill said.
“The Salinas lettuce bowl area is one of the biggest users of the Mexican workers.
“Russell McComb, California Highway Patrol information officer, said the toll of 27 dead in the Salinas crossing wreck is the biggest single vehicle accident toll since 14 braceros lost their lives at nearby Soledad June 16, 1958. The 14 died in a truck that crashed and burned.” (Bakersfield Californian. “Make-Shift Bracero Bus Hit by Train; 28 Die.” 9-18-1963, pp. 1-2.)
Sep 19, UPI: “Salinas (UPI) — The death toll from the worst bus-train accident in U. S. history climbed to 29 today when a Mexican farm worker tentatively identified as Juan Diaz died at Monterey County Hospital here. Diaz, about 22, died of injuries[1] received when a freight train traveling 65 miles per hour hit a bus at nearby Chualar Tuesday. Thirty farm workers remained in serious condition. The only occupant of the converted truck to escape serious injury — the driver — faced a charge of felony manslaughter.
“Meanwhile; two farm laborers were killed and one was critically injured yesterday when a Southern Pacific freight train crashed into a pickup truck south of Madera, 80 miles east of here.
“Tuesday’s crash, which involved a Southern Pacific freight train and a makeshift bus, prompted orders for investigations from Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz and Gov. Edmund G. Brown…” (Press-Courier, Oxnard, CA. “Bus-train crash claims life of 29th bracero.” 9-19-1963, p. 32.)
Oct 10, UPI: “San Francisco (UPI) – The state has ordered growers and labor contractors to tighten up their methods of selecting and training drivers of farm worker transportation vehicles. The stiffened requirements were announced by Ernest B. Webb, director of the state Department of Industrial Relations, after a report by the Division of Industrial Safety on the bus-train crash Sept. 17 near Chualar which killed 32 farm workers and injured 27. In addition to improved driver selection and training, the order directed all farm associations and labor contractors to make sure extra precautions are taken at rail crossings which do not have barriers or flashing signals. It was at such a crossing the Chualar collision occurred. From now on, a “competent” person will be required to climb out of the bus and make certain the tracks are clear. “The Chualar accident makes it tragically clear that a vigorous program of selecting, training and supervision of drivers is absolutely essential,” Webb said. “Employers have an inescapable legal and moral responsibility to make sure that only thoroughly qualified drivers are entrusted with the carrying of precious human cargo.” Webb said the “major factor” in recent farm worker transportation accidents has been “human failure on the part of the driver.”” (Bakersfield Californian. “State Orders Tight Bus Safety Rules.” 10-14-1963, p. 32.)
Sep 13, 2013: “Nearly 50 years ago, Salvador Flores Barragan arrived in the Salinas Valley to work in the agricultural fields under a program that by then had become controversial. On Sept. 17, 1963, Flores Barragan had been working for about four months. It had been like any other routine day for the native of Zacoalco de Torres, Jalisco. Get up, go to work harvesting celery, return to the labor camp….
“The group of more than 50 men climbed back on the flat-bed truck and sat on the benches. The driver, Francisco Gonzales Espinoza, was new on the job, Flores Barragan said. The truck began making its way from the fields to the freeway and at the railroad crossing was hit by a Southern Pacific train traveling about 50 mph. “I don’t remember anything after that,” the 74-year-old Flores Barragan said. “We were told the train sounded its whistle, but I didn’t hear anything.” Flores Barragan survived one of the worst accidents in California history. The crash in Chualar killed 28 farm-workers, all immigrants who had come to the United States under the Bracero[2] program. It sent 35 people to the hospital, some of whom eventually died. Flores Barragan is believed to be the last survivor….
“On Saturday, a group of community activists and politicians will dedicate two plaques commemorating the accident and the memory of the workers. The event will serve to designate a 15-mile portion of Highway 101 between Chualar and Soledad as the Bracero Memorial Highway…. The Bracero program, launched after the United States entered World War II, brought an estimated 5 million workers, mostly Mexican, to work in the fields and the railroads from 1942 to 1964. The workers reported many abuses, and by the time the accident happened, the program was in its final stages…. Braceros had their work permit tied to their employers in a situation ripe for abuse, historians have documented. The program is often invoked in ongoing immigration reform efforts as example of what could go wrong with guest-worker programs. It is perhaps the main reason why labor groups oppose them….” (The Herald (Claudia Melendez Salinas), Monterey, CA. “Bracero memorials to be unveiled 50 years after fatal train crash.” 9-13-2013.)
Blanchard note: For further reading see: Flores, Lori A. “A Town Full of Dead Mexicans: The Salinas Valley Bracero Tragedy of 1963, the End of the Bracero Program, and the Evolution of California’s Chicano Movement.” Western Historical Quarterly (Utah State University), Vol. 44, No. 2, Summer 2013, pp. 124-143.
Sources
Bakersfield Californian. “Make-Shift Bracero Bus Hit by Train; 28 Die.” 9-18-1963, p. 1. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=155018289&sterm=chualar+train+bus
Bakersfield Californian. “State Orders Tight Bus Safety Rules.” 10-14-1963, p. 32. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=154208329&sterm=chualar+train+bus
Daily Independent, Corona, CA. “Bus-Train crash toll now at 29.” 9-20-1962, p. 3. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=187884234&sterm=chualar+train+bus
Haine, Edgar A. Railroad Wrecks. New York: Cornwall Books, 1993, p. 32.
Martinez, Juan D. “Bracero Memorial highway.” Bracero History Archive. No date. Accessed 12-15-2013 at: http://braceroarchive.org/items/show/3220
National Safety Council. “Greatest Number of Deaths in a Single Motor-Vehicle Accident.” Accident Facts 1970 Edition. Chicago, IL: NSC, 1970. p. 63.
Press-Courier, Oxnard, CA. “Bus-train crash claims life of 29th bracero.” 9-19-1963, p. 32. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=72180029&sterm=chualar+train+bus
The Herald (Claudia Melendez Salinas), Monterey, CA. “Bracero memorials to be unveiled 50 years after fatal train crash.” 9-13-2013. Accessed 12-15-2013 at: http://www.montereyherald.com/news/ci_24091585/bracero-memorials-be-unveiled-remembrance-tragic-accident
[1] Another report cited “head and chest injuries.” (Daily Independent, Corona, CA. “Bus-Train crash toll now at 29.” 9-20-1962, p. 3.)
[2] Manual labor.