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13 killed after semitruck hits SUV carrying 25 people in California

21 Comments

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21 Comments
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Developing country stuff. Horrifying.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

I am so sorry for these poor people. For the difficult lives they lead and for this horrific accident and the ordeal that lies ahead for the survivors.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

This is so sad, it appears most of the dead and injured people were poor workers on their way to work at the farms. I hope their families receive some compensation.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Incredibly stupid thing to do cramming that many people in to a vehicle never designed for so many.

It raises the question why, who they were and where were they going?

The article obliquely implies without saying that they may be illegal immigrants brought in for the harvest.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Horrible faceless story. The stuff of nightmares. (The article needs a bit of editing too.)

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Video here seems to show the truck was empty, not full as the article says. That the truck driver survived shows that often the larger vehicle is safer in an accident.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56260295

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Incredibly stupid thing to do cramming that many people in to a vehicle never designed for so many.

You’ve obviously never had to take risks to provide for your family.

Lucky you.

Too bad you lack empathy for those who do take risks so that their family can have a better life.

Deride them as “illegals” all you want, they grow your food, clean your hotels and hospitals, do the dirty work that is beneath you. The American economy would collapse without them.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Have to agree with GdTokyo above. I remember when I was young and penniless cramming into a van full of people. Overloaded, possibly risky and illegal, but I had little other choice at the time.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Carrot capital of the world! I won’t be buying carrots from there if workers suffer such fate.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

The agricultural roads in the San Joaquin valley are dangerous: narrow roads paralleling vast fields turn onto through roads where traffic flows at very high speeds with no more than a stop sign, and workers crowd into whatever available vehicle to move between fields. Tragedy.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The American economy would collapse without them.

It's a myth that a wealthy country needs a huge army of exploited foreign and illegal workers in order to survive. Canada, Japan, and a host of other don't, and their economies are in many ways stronger, including the farming sector.

Amerca's current situation ensures its super wealthy will get even wealthier, while working-class living standards remain close to developing world levels.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Canada, Japan, and a host of other don't, and their economies are in many ways stronger, including the farming sector.

That is not true. Canada has the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program that combined bring in close to 60,000 Mexican agricultural workers each year to harvest Canadian crops. Many work for the same farm year after year.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/08/27/news/why-canada-hires-thousands-migrant-farm-workers

Japan has a large pool of illegal labor such as Vietnamese, Indonesians and South Americans, particularly from Brazil. The fishing industry relies on foreign labor as the local workforce ages out. Japan has bilateral agreements with Indonesia and Philippines to bring in health care workers. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of half a million foreign workers in Japan officially. Unofficially is another matter.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Canada, Japan, and a host of other don't, and their economies are in many ways stronger, including the farming sector.

Laughably provably false. Obviously you have not been here long.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Sad, very, very sad, but that is why it is so important to have comprehensive immigration laws and people need to come in legally and not think that by any means when they come in they'll be granted citizenship. Once they come in legally and follow the system, hopefully, tragedies like this one in the future can be avoided.

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

Sad, very, very sad, but that is why it is so important to have comprehensive immigration laws and people need to come in legally and not think that by any means when they come in they'll be granted citizenship. Once they come in legally and follow the system, hopefully, tragedies like this one in the future can be avoided.

There is no evidence in the article that they are illegal immigrants. You are also confusing immigration law with road safety law.

Not everybody wants to wake up at 4 am to do back breaking work picking lettuce all day, those without the luxury of choice take these risks. Changing immigration law won’t change it one bit.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

There is no evidence in the article that they are illegal immigrants. You are also confusing immigration law with road safety law.

There’s plenty of evidence that this is a case of human trafficking. It’s a criminal act in itself to cram so many people into a single vehicle- they weren’t out for a Sunday drive. Perfect example of the belief on the part of the drug cartels and coyotes that Biden has open up the borders.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

@DesertTortoise

That is not true. Canada has the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program....

No, what I said is true. LEGAL workers enter through those programs, not ILLEGAL ones, as in the US. Their conditions are regulated and better supervised, so for example, 24 dont get crammed in a single vehicle, unbeknownst to the authorities until many die horribly.

Japan has a large pool of illegal labor such as Vietnamese, Indonesians and South Americans, particularly from Brazil.

There are some, but not "large" as in 10 to 20 million as in the US. Japan sent most of the Brazilians home when they weren't needed and will be sending home many of the Vietnamese with expired visas when Covid ends. Suggesting the situation here is comparable to in the US is absurd.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

There’s plenty of evidence that this is a case of human trafficking. It’s a criminal act in itself to cram so many people into a single vehicle- they weren’t out for a Sunday drive. Perfect example of the belief on the part of the drug cartels and coyotes that Biden has open up the borders.

No there isn’t. Read it again without the agenda.

Nobody said they were out for a Sunday drive.

It’s possibly a case of minimum wage workers and a bad employer. Don’t blame Biden for people not following road laws. That’d be foolish.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

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