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.
[1][4][5] The collision was a factor in the decision by Congress in 1964 to terminate the bracero program, despite its strong support among farmers.
Some of the workers were sitting on the floor of the bus amid metal food containers and long knives used in the harvesting.
[3] A freight train from the Southern Pacific Railroad with four diesel locomotives, the lead unit being SP 5857, an ALCO RS-11, pulling 71 cars carrying sugar beets, and a caboose, was approaching from the south at a high speed, either 61 miles per hour (98 km/h), according to the railroad, or 67 miles per hour (108 km/h), according to the California Highway Patrol.
The failure to identify the bodies was cited by critics of the bracero program, who said it indicated how Mexican workers were not treated as persons.
[4][5] The funeral arrangements became a fiasco, with Salinas municipal authorities and the Mexican consulate fighting over who would handle the bodies.
Ultimately the dispute was resolved, the town was allowed to participate, and 9,000 people attended the funeral, which was held at Palma High School in Salinas.
[4][5] An Interstate Commerce Commission investigation blamed the accident on him for failure to exercise "due caution" at the crossing.
[10] The ICC determined that Espinosa had "an unobstructed view of the railroad throughout a considerable distance," and that "the driver could have readily observed the approaching northbound train if he had looked southward along the track.
In September 1964, a state official, who was seeking to serve notice of revocation of his driver's license, reported that his sister-in-law said Espinosa had been slain in Mexico by relatives of crash victims.
Galarza reported that Espinosa was kept in seclusion, preventing him from giving testimony, and that Southern Pacific declined to permit inspection of its equipment until some time after the accident.
[3][4] Galarza found that Espinosa was a diabetic, which curbed his field of vision, and the foreman sitting to his right impaired his view of the oncoming train.
The accident supported the views of critics that Bracero workers were treated shabbily, helping to spur the demise of the program in 1964.
A crash test and approximate recreation of the collision was conducted in the 1980s with a Union Pacific Railroad GE U30C locomotive and an unoccupied school bus.
[8] At some unknown date after the accident Broome Road was reconfigured to prevent any crossing of the train tracks.