Farm Worker Is Killed in Somis Accident

A 28-year-old farm worker picking lemons in a Somis grove was killed Thursday when she sustained massive head injuries after being knocked off a ladder by a passing forklift.

Olivia Hernandez of Santa Paula was pronounced dead at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard about an hour after the 11:40 a.m. accident, said Craig Stevens, a senior deputy medical examiner for Ventura County.

Hernandez became the third farm worker killed during an on-the-job accident in Ventura County in the past year and the eighth in 1 1/2 years. She was among 26 farm workers at an 85-acre grove on Aggen Road, about half a mile north of California 118 when the accident occurred.

Stevens said Hernandez was three to four feet above the ground when a forklift jarred her ladder and she fell and struck her head on a section of hard dirt. She had few visible signs of head trauma, but most likely suffered massive internal head injuries, Stevens said.

An autopsy is set for today.

Investigators from Cal/OSHA spent much of the afternoon interviewing employees and retracing the events leading up to the accident. Dean Fryer, a spokesman for the state safety agency, said many questions remain. Investigators, for instance, were unsure whether Hernandez’s head first struck the forklift.

Stevens said there was nothing on the straddle forklift--designed to pick up large boxes or containers--to indicate Hernandez had struck the vehicle before the ground.

Several employees pulled Hernandez from under the trees and attempted to revive her until paramedics arrived, said Carlos Quintino, a foreman at the farm.

Fryer said Hernandez was an employee of farm labor contractor Da-Vir Industries Ltd. of Ventura. He said the company’s safety record was unblemished except for minor health violations involving worker cleanliness.

The farm is operated by the D.F.K. Corp. in Somis, Quintino said. No one answered the phone Thursday at the company’s office.

Since last spring, two other farm employees have been killed on the job. In November, a 65-year-old tractor driver was killed when he attempted to cross an unguarded section of railroad track near Camarillo and was struck by an Amtrak train.

In April, a 79-year-old labor contractor from Fillmore died when he was run over by a forklift driven by one of his employees at Calleguas Ranch in Camarillo.

Fryer said an investigation into Thursday’s accident could take up to three months and bring a penalty of between a “a few hundred and $25,000.”

Since the agency began a statewide program in 1999 to increase awareness of farm hazards for workers, the number of fatal accidents has declined.

There were 39 farm worker deaths in 1999 and 16 reported in 2000. Numbers for 2001 were not available, Fryer said.

The program includes safety classes for farm workers and owners as well as periodic inspections of equipment and working conditions.

“You are out there in the weather and the elements and it’s dangerous work,” Fryer said. “It’s very difficult and strenuous work especially when you have equipment moving around.”