Operational Improvements Honorable Mention: To California Highway Patrol for Safety and Farm Labor Vehicle Education (SAFE) Program
The Safety and Farm Labor Vehicle Education (SAFE) Program was created to address the transportation of thousands of farm workers who are hired for field labor within the boundaries of the California Highway Patrol’s (CHP) Central Division. Annually, over 600,000 migrant workers converge into California’s Central Valley during harvest season and thousands more work in the fields in other agricultural centers throughout the state.
Prior to the implementation of this program, an alarming number of accidents occurred in which innocent farm workers lost their lives due to the poor conditions of the vehicles in which they were transported for field work. The objectives of the SAFE program are to provide education and enforcement in an effort to reduce farm labor vehicle (FLV) collisions and fatalities resulting from farm workers who ride in unsafe vehicles.
Since the inception of the SAFE program, the CHP has established a positive working relationship with farm workers, labor contractors, and the farming community. SAFE has successfully utilized bilingual officers to reach out to a community which traditionally has had an inherent reluctance to interact with law enforcement. Other resources used to accomplish this objective include a toll-free number to report violators and electronic and print media. In addition, SAFE officers appear regularly on both English and Spanish television and radio programs to inform audiences of FLV inspection operations and offer important traffic safety tips for FLVs and farm worker transportation.
The SAFE program has enjoyed tremendous success since its implementation in 1999. Traffic safety in general is improved as well, thanks to the inspections conducted by CHP SAFE officers. Over one hundred unsafe vehicles are removed from service each year. The success has led to the expansion of the SAFE program to other CHP Field Divisions. The program has also gained nationwide notoriety by prompting new Federal regulations that were introduced in 2006 and are directly related to the safety of field workers.
For more information, contact:
Jose Gutierrez
California Highway Patrol
Telephone: 559-445-6100
Email: jogutierrez@chp.ca.gov
Rev. 10/30/07