In what appears to be a tragic accident, a farmworker was crushed to death while harvesting almonds according to a brief statement from the state Department of Industrial Relations, Cal/OSHA.
The Kern County Coroner’s office identified the victim as 65-year-old Felipe Reyes Garcia of Shafter.
According to Cal/OSHA, it received a report that an employee in the Lost Hills area was crushed between stationary equipment and a mobile wagon and died at 7:30 am on August 12. Cal/OSHA did not release further details other than to confirm it is investigating the matter.
Kern County Fire Department personnel responded to a call of a fatal accident on August 12 at an isolated almond orchard approximately two miles south of Highway 46 west of Warren Road near Lost Hills. The work site is accessible only by a dirt road. The orchard belongs to Wonderful Orchards based in Shafter, which released a statement saying the worker was not employed by the company but worked for a labor contractor. A spokesperson for parent company Wonderful Co. issued the following statement.
“Yesterday morning, (August 12) a contract employee was tragically lost in an almond harvest-related accident in one of our orchards in western Kern County. We are deeply saddened by this terrible loss and are providing support to his family as well as our employees. We are also conducting a full investigation to determine the cause of the accident. The safety and extensive training of our employees is our highest priority and will always remain of the utmost importance. On behalf of our entire organization, we express our sincerest condolences to his family.”
News of the death of a farmworker spread throughout the small agricultural community of Lost Hills which has a population of less than two thousand residents. “This is very sad, but not surprising,” said an employee of a local chain restaurant who did not want to give his name. “Farmworkers are dying in the fields because the work is dangerous,” he said.
This is the second fatal accident of a Kern County farmworker in less than one year. On September 20, 2023, 58-year-old Rosa Miriam Sanchez of Bakersfield was killed when she was run over by a truck while picking carrots in a remote field in Santa Barbara County.
