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On September 17, 1963, a freight train collided with a bus carrying 58 migrant farmworkers on a railroad crossing outside Chualar in the Salinas Valley, California, killing 32 people and injuring 25.〔 It was the worst fatal vehicle accident in United States history, according to the National Safety Council.〔 The accident has long been a rallying point for immigration rights and Chicano farmworker activists. All but two of the victims were Mexican or Mexican-American, and most were Mexican guest workers participating in the bracero program, which had been in place since 1942 and had been drawing mounting criticism from labor activists and civil rights workers who contended that it exploited Mexican laborers and deprived Americans of jobs. The accident supported the views of critics that Bracero workers were treated shabbily, helping to spur the demise of the program in 1964.〔 ==The accident== The workers on the bus lived at the Earl Myers Co. labor camp in Salinas, Monterey County, California, and were returning after a ten-hour shift harvesting celery and other vegetables from two fields in the Salinas Valley.〔〔 Fifty-three were braceros contracted by the Growers Farm Labor Association of Salinas. There were also five non-bracero farm laborers, including one undocumented immigrant and two transients who were not Mexican-Americans. Of the five, only the undocumented immigrant was killed.〔 The passengers were riding on two long board benches running the length of the vehicle, which was a flatbed truck covered with a canopy, with the passengers unable to communicate with the driver. It was typical of the converted vehicles used to transport farmworkers in California, which in subsequent years have been criticized for endangering the safety of farmworkers. Some of the workers were sitting on the floor of the bus amid long knives used in the harvesting and metal food containers. The driver was the workers' foreman, Francisco "Pancho" Espinosa, who was 34 years of age and a permanent resident alien.〔〔 At about 4:20 to 4:25 p.m., Espinosa was traveling east on Thomas Ranch Road, a private country lane, approaching a single railroad track just to the west of, and parallel to, U.S. Route 101, a mile south of Chualar and about eight miles south of Salinas. The crossing, which was privately maintained, was not marked by lights, signs or signals. There were no trees, crops or other objects impeding visibility down the train tracks.〔 A freight train from the Southern Pacific Railroad with four diesel engines, 71 cars carrying sugar beets, and a caboose, was approaching from the south at a high rate of speed, 61 miles per hour according to the railroad and 67 miles per hour, according to the California Highway Patrol. The precise speed was never determined with certainty.〔According to the Galarza report, Southern Pacific and the train crew said it was 61 m.p.h. The California Highway Patrol based its determination on the train's tachometer, but that was disputed by Southern Pacific, which said the tachometer was malfunctioning.〕 The train crew applied the emergency brake. Not realizing the train was approaching, the driver moved slowly across. The train collided with the bus. Despite the application of the emergency brake, the train did not come to a stop until the front of the train had proceeded 3,050 feet north of the intersection.〔 The 57 dead and injured were scattered around the tracks, some thrown more than 100 feet. Twenty-three died at the scene and nine died en route to the hospital or afterwards. Fifteen ambulances carried victims from the scene. Many casualties were inflicted by being dragged along with the bus and direct impact by the train, while other injuries were caused by splintered flooring planks, jagged edges of twisted metal, harvest knives and metal equipment. One victim was cut in half by the wheels of the train. The injuries were so gruesome that blood flowed like water from one ambulance, according to one account.〔〔〔 The dead ranged in age from 19 to 59,〔 and a partial count indicated that they left behind 37 dependents under the age of 16. They came from the Mexican states of Sonora, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Puebla, Jalisco and Zacatecas.〔 No one on the train was hurt, and the only person on the bus who was uninjured was the driver, Espinosa.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1963 Chualar bus crash」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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