Eight people were killed early Friday in a crash involving a pickup truck and a van carrying farmworkers in a rural central California area.
Witnesses said that the pickup truck was swerving on the two-lane rural highway when it slammed head-on into the van about 25 miles outside of Fresno at 6:15 a.m.
California Highway Patrol Officer Javier Ruvalcaba said that seven farmworkers and the driver of the pickup all died in the horrific collision.
One farmworker survived the crash and is expected to recover. Ruvalcaba noted that only two farmworkers were wearing seatbelts.
“If they had been wearing their seatbelts, the rear passengers would have probably survived,” he said.
The van was about 5 miles away from the vineyard where the victims worked as pruners. The cause of the crash is being investigated.
“At this point, we don’t know whether alcohol or drugs played a factor,” he added.
