Chualar train-bus collision
train and bus crash in California on September 17, 1963
The Chualar bus crash took place on September 17, 1963, when a freight train collided with a makeshift "bus" — a flatbed truck with two long benches and a canopy — carrying 58 migrant farmworkers on a railroad crossing outside Chualar in the Salinas Valley, California, United States, killing 32 people and injuring 25. The crash is ranked as the deadliest automobile accident in U.S. history according to the National Safety Council, although the March 14, 1940 Alamo, Texas train-bus collision is deadlier with 34 fatalities.
The collision was a factor in the decision by Congress in 1964 to terminate the bracero program, despite its strong support among farmers. It also helped spur the Chicano Civil Rights Movement.
Background
The workers riding on the bus lived at the Earl Myers Company 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. 53 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.
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