Provincial officials have confirmed the Labor of Ministry is investigating a single-vehicle crash that sent eight migrant workers to hospital Sunday but have provided few details.
Provincial officials have confirmed the Labor of Ministry is investigating a single-vehicle crash that sent eight migrant workers to hospital Sunday but have provided few details.
An email from a spokesperson said the ministry was notified of the crash and an inspector had been assigned to the ongoing investigation.
Ministry officials, though, would not provide details about the farm where the men are employed, the employer’s level of responsibility in this type of incident or any other information about the investigation.
“As the investigation is ongoing, we’re unable to provide additional details at this time,” a spokesperson said in an email.
A passenger van, driven by a 31-year-old migrant worker, was traveling east on Fairview Line from Chatham early Sunday morning when it reportedly failed to stop for a posted stop sign at Kent Bridge Road, Chatham-Kent police said on Monday. The van then struck the yawning ditch on the opposite side of the intersection.
“Due to the fact that this vehicle contained individuals who were en route to a nearby farm to work, the Ministry of Labor was called out and they will be conducting an investigation as well,” investigating officer Const. Josh Flikweert said Monday.
Three of the van’s passengers, ages 38, 32 and 20, were flown by air ambulance to hospital in London to be treated for serious injuries, Chatham-Kent police said Monday. A 41-year-old man was also transferred by air ambulance to hospital in Windsor for treatment of serious injuries, police reported.
The van’s driver, along with two 32-year-old men and a 30-year-old man, only suffered minor injuries, police added.
Police also noted the collision itself remains under investigation, but charges are pending.
Because of incidents like this crash – and a similar fatal collision near Stratford 10 years ago – advocates have been pushing for more protection for foreign workers who come to Ontario to work on farms and other agricultural operations.
There’s been a call by many migrant farm worker organizations for “permanent status on arrival” that would afford them greater protection if hurt on the job.
The circumstances of Sunday morning’s crash seem eerily similar to the deadly collision that happened Feb. 6, 2012, in Hampstead, a rural area near Stratford.
A trucker headed home to London to celebrate his anniversary, and a 15-passenger van driven by a migrant worker, collided, killing the trucker and 10 migrant workers from South America.
It was later revealed the van driver blew through a stop sign at the intersection where the crash occurred.
There were only three survivors of the 13 people in the passenger van. The workers had just finished working at a nearby poultry farm rounding up and inoculating chickens against diseases.
In the past two decades, roughly 60 migrant workers have died in Ontario. Canadian farmers rely on nearly 60,000 offshore farm laborers each year to work in fields, orchards, barns and greenhouses.
Nearly one-third of them work in Ontario, mainly in Southwestern Ontario’s farm belt.