GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Several farmworkers involved in Tuesday's deadly crash were staying at a hotel in Gainesville, using it as housing during contracted work on watermelon farms.

Among them is Pablo Lopez, who was not on the bus during the crash, but received word about the incident involving his colleagues.

What You Need To Know

  • Several farmworkers involved in Tuesday's deadly crash were staying at a hotel in Gainesville, using it as housing during contracted work

  • One of the workers who was not on the bus, Pablo Lopez, says he's sad after the news and worries for his safety

  • Lopez says his colleagues are trying to work with hospitals and authorities to see if the can communicate with impacted families

Lopez, in an interview translated from Spanish, says he’s sad after learning the news, and he worries it might happen to him, as he rides on the same buses to work.

“Well, at the same time you feel shocked or sad because the news comes suddenly and sometimes it worries you because you also travel in the same trucks,” said Lopez. “The same thing could happen to us, we don’t know if the same thing will happen to us tomorrow.”

He says the guys who were on the bus told him they’re in shock, and have never seen something like this before.

“They saw the wounded. They tried to help them, but they couldn’t do anything,” said Lopez.

Lopez says it’s hard leaving home to work in the United States, but they have to do it in order to pursue a better life.

“We left our families, our children, in Mexico, and we don’t know if we are going to return,” he said. “Their families are destroyed. Their children tomorrow, they will ask about their parents, their brothers, their relatives, and they are not coming back.”

Lopez says he knew one of the victims who passed away in the bus crash, a 26-year-old father to a one-year-old son.

“26 years old. It was my colleague from where I live,” he said.

Maria Elena Valdivia, the executive director of the Migrants and Minorities Alliance, says since learning about the crash, she’s feeling devastated knowing the victims were alone in the hospital.

Valdivia’s organization advocates for victims to be identified, so the families can be notified. 

“I just cannot imagine myself being at the hospital in such conditions,” she said. “I’m trying to be as much as hands on as I can be, but also putting pressure on the authorities.”

Although this is a very difficult situation, Lopez said he wanted to share a message of hope with the families of the victims in Mexico, saying they need to keep pushing forward and keep fighting for the future of their kids. 

“It’s hard, life, it’s hard because we have to give it a try,” he said. “More than anything, the families, the mothers of the children, the wives of the guys who were working here, they have to keep going and do it for their children.”

Lopez, along with dozens of farmworkers staying at the hotel, are constantly checking their phones, staying in contact with their family members in Mexico.

He says they don’t have a lot of information yet on what will happen to them, as they didn’t go to work today, but they are trying to talk to hospitals and authorities to see if they can communicate with the family members of those impacted. 

“At the moment we still do not know information because they have not given us anything,” said Lopez. “We have tried to speak to the hospital, but they do not give us information either. So we are waiting for those in charge to come later and give us some information to know what is going to happen with them and if we can give some information to their families.”