Tragedy is echoed as crash kills forest worker

By Tom Knudson and Hector Amezcua -- Bee Staff Writers
Published Thursday, December 22, 2005

Rene Ramirez Perez

A Guatemalan forest worker has died and another is in a Seattle hospital fighting for his life as the result of a van accident in Washington that is nearly a mirror image of one that claimed the lives of five Guatemalan forest workers there in March 2004.

Monday's accident occurred on the same stretch of highway north of Mount Saint Helens. It bloodied residents of the same tiny indigenous Guatemala village who, like those in the 2004 accident, were commuting to piece-rate jobs harvesting brush on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest for a $236 million floral greens industry in Washington state. Even some of the people involved are the same. Two survivors of Monday's crash - including the driver - were passengers in the deadly 2004 accident.

Other similarities have regulators, Highway Patrol officers, migrant advocates and forest workers concerned. Both accidents happened on long-distance, early-morning commutes in aging vans crowded with passengers who were not wearing seat belts. As in the 2004 crash, some workers in this week's tragedy were unable to wear seat belts because they rode on metal bench seats that did not have belts. At least one of the bench seats was not bolted to the floor, police said.

"We are worried and desperate," Mariano Matias Mendoza, a Guatemalan forest worker and a friend of victims of both crashes, said by phone. "These problems happen because of the long drives. We get tired from getting up early and arriving back late."

Nothing kills more Latino forest workers - known as pineros - than van accidents, a subject explored in a November Bee investigation: "The Pineros: Men of the Pines." The Bee found that fatigue, unstable, poorly maintained vehicles, ineffective state and federal regulations and inexperienced drivers contributed to the rash of injuries and deaths. Counting this week's tragedy, at least 22 pineros have now died in van accidents nationwide over the past three years - and many others have been injured.

According to police, Monday's accident occurred at 7 a.m. when Rene Ramirez Perez, the driver of a van carrying eight Guatemalans, lost control after passing a semi-trailer truck on snowy Highway 12. The van crashed into a ditch, careened back onto the highway and was struck by the big rig. Ramirez's younger brother, Gonzalo, 16, was killed at the scene. Seven others were rushed to hospitals, where one remained in grave condition Wednesday. He was not expected to survive. Police said Ramirez Perez, 20, fled the accident and was being held in the Lewis County jail in Chehalis and has been charged with vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, and felony hit and run.

Reached in Guatemala, Roberto Ramirez - the father of Rene and Gonzalo - was grief-stricken. "We are very sad," he said. "my wife is in mourning. ... it is like she wants to die.

"My son didn't want to hurt anyone," he added. "He was just trying to go to work."

California has the toughest migrant worker transportation legislation in the country. Two laws championed in 1999 by state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, then an assemblyman, and former Assembly member Sarah Reyes, D-Fresno, made seat belts compulsory for everyone riding in vans carrying nine or more passengers, and strengthened farmworker van inspections.

A 2000 effort to enact similar national legislation by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., following the deaths of 13 San Joaquin valley farmworkers, fell apart after farm interests objected to the cost of retrofitting vans with seat belts.

"It's pretty obvious we need something like that up here," said Washington Highway Patrol Sgt. Dave Knies.

Knies was among those who responded to Monday's van accident, which closed a portion of Highway 12 for eight hours.

"It was chaos," he said. "We had at least five ambulances. There was debris scattered everywhere - rain gear, tie-downs for the brush, lunches. There were three vehicles involved. It was pretty horrific."

After Monday's crash, Washington lawmaker Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney, D-Seattle, told The Bee she plans to introduce legislation to strengthen migrant worker transportation safety and enforcement in Washington. Kenney was vague about details but said she was concerned floral bouquet companies that buy the harvested brush take little or no responsibility for worker safety.

In 2002, the six largest floral greens companies sued the state, contending that brush pickers are in business for themselves - and are not technically employees. "Safe transportation should be provided as part of their contract," Kenney said. "My feeling is the companies wouldn't get the work done if it weren't for them (the migrant brush pickers). "

Washington's Department of Labor and Industries, which in recent years has stepped up its enforcement of the brush picking industry, is investigating the accident and is trying to determine, among other things, who the Guatemalans were working for.

Their friend Matias Mendoza said the pickers shopped their brush to the highest bidder. "There isn't a specific company they sell the brush to," he said.

"It's a challenging issue," said Gary Weeks, department director. "We remain very concerned about the situation that brush pickers often find themselves in, whether that involves issues of safety or being paid fairly."

After the 2004 accident, department investigators interviewed four survivors, trying to sort out whether a floral greens company or the driver was responsible.

Unable to find a connection to a brush-packing company, the department determined that the driver - a Guatemalan who died in the crash - was responsible, leaving Washington taxpayers to foot the bill for medical expenses and death benefits that have now exceeded $1 million.

Driven by extreme poverty, untold numbers of Guatemalans journey illegally to the United States to work in the woods. In southwest Washington, many come from village Todos Santos, where residents and family members have not recovered from the pain of the 2004 crash.

Deeply in debt to smugglers and others who finance their dangerous journey north, the villagers from Todos Santos face intense pressure in the U.S. to work long and hard to repay the debt.

They rise before dawn, drive long distances in run-down vans to places such as the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, where they purchase federal permits to harvest brush, and get paid by the bundle - not the hour. Like three crashes involving forest workers nationwide since 2002, Monday's accident occurred near the end of a long morning commute.

It happened west of the town of Morton less than 10 miles from the deadly 2004 crash - about 100 miles from the forest workers' home in Shelton, north of Olympia. The highway was slippery with ice and snow. Inside, workers were tired, according to Mariano Ramirez Pablo, a survivor.

"The truth is, I don't know what happened. I was asleep," said Ramirez Pablo.

Ramirez Pablo - who also is a survivor of the 2004 crash - was the owner of the van totaled in Monday's accident. He let his friend - Rene Ramirez Perez - drive because Ramirez Perez had a license and insurance.

The two forest workers were in a precarious position in the prior accident - on a bench seat unbolted to the floor. A passenger riding on the same seat died.

This time, Ramirez Perez was in the driver's seat - the only passenger wearing a seat belt, police said. Ramirez Pablo and the others were either on the floor asleep or on unbolted or traditional van seats. Unbolted bench seats are popular because they can be removed to make room for brush.

Police said three workers were ejected in Monday's accident. The most seriously injured was Antonio Ramirez Pablo - brother of the van owner - who is clinging to life in a Seattle hospital.

The workers' friend and fellow brush picker - Matias Mendoza - was stunned to learn that history had repeated itself - and that two veterans of the previous crash were involved in yet another.

For more than a year, Matias Mendoza has seen the highway's toll firsthand in weekly visits to comfort a friend injured in the first crash - one who remains under medical care. Now, Matias Medosa has more workers to visit.

"I don't know if they are tired or they can't drive a vehicle in the conditions," he said. "I think it's because they are going so far." I've been thinking about having some communication with (authorities) so they can prevent them going so far to work."

Tom Knappenberger, a spokesman for the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, expressed sympathy for the crash victims and their families but said transportation safety is outside of the agency's responsibility.

Matt Geyman, a Seattle lawyer who represented Rene Ramirez Perez for a workers' compensation claim in the earlier accident, said this week's crash "is tragic and shows this is a problem that needs to be addressed. There's a pattern here.

"And it's not just about legal issues or public policy issues," Geyman added. "It's also a human tragedy."

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