Santa Maria Sun / News

Farmworker deaths prompt fines, more investigations

Amy Asman

After a three-month-long investigation, the California Department of Industrial Relations’ Division of Occupational Safety and Health has issued six citations and $262,700 worth of fines against Merced Farm Labor Contractor, the Atwater-based employer of a 17-year-old farm worker who died of heat stroke in May.

The fines are the largest assessed to an agricultural firm since the permanent heat illness prevention regulations were implemented into state law in 2006, according to a press release from the division.

The investigation found that Maria Vasquez Jimenez collapsed after working nine hours in a Lodi vineyard, reportedly with little water and no shade. She died two days later. According to the division, company representatives failed to report the death to Cal/OSHA, a procedure required by law.

In Santa Maria, the investigation into the death of 63-year-old Jose Macarena Hernandez is still ongoing. Hernandez died last month while harvesting butternut squash in triple-digit heat on a farm in Santa Maria.

DIR/Cal/OSHA employee Erika Monterroza told the Sun that autopsy results on the official cause of death are still inconclusive. She explained that they’re still not certain who hired Hernandez—or if he was hired at all.

Monterroza added that investigations usually take about two to three months to complete, but that legally Cal/OSHA has six months to finish its investigation.