Families of Mexican farmworker bus crash victims mourn the loss of their loved ones

 Source:world Views: 【BigSmall】 Time:2024-06-03 17:52:25 Number of comments:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — In San Miguel Almolonga, a rural farming community in Mexico, a mourning family recited prayers while grieving the loss of a father who came to Florida under a temporary visa to support his family.

Yamilet Pérez Ríos, the 14-year-old daughter of Manuel Pérez Ríos, wept as she said she is now left without her father, who died in a bus crash early Tuesday north of Orlando, Florida.

“He went to seek a better life for me, for my mother, a week ago, and now they say my dad is dead,” she said.

Manuel Pérez Ríos, 46, was one of eight farmworkers killed in a bus crash Tuesday on the way to a watermelon patch at Cannon Farms in Dunnellon. He was a father of four children and had four grandchildren.

Early Tuesday, Bryan Howard, 41, crossed the center line of State Road 40 in his 2001 Ford Ranger and sideswiped a bus carrying 53 farmworkers, which then veered the bus of the two-lane road. The bus hit a tree and rolled over. Howard failed several sobriety tests and was arrested, the Florida Highway Patrol said.