In California: More than a dozen are dead after early-morning Imperial collision

Hello, hello. It's Tuesday, March 2, and I'm Kate Cimini, a reporter for The Salinas Californian and CalMatters, with your daily headlines. Here's what's going on in the Golden State today.

In California brings you top Golden State stories and commentary from across the USA TODAY Network and beyond. Get it free, straight to your inbox.

More than a dozen dead in Imperial collision

At least 13 people have died after a tractor-trailer carrying gravel collided with an SUV carrying dozens of passengers in Imperial County, California Highway Patrol said Tuesday. 

The truck, which was hauling two trailers, collided with the side of a Ford Expedition. Twenty-five people were inside the SUV, said California Highway Patrol Division Chief Omar Watson. The vehicles crashed before 6:15 a.m. at the intersection of State Route 115 and Norrish Road near Holtville, about 50 miles west of Arizona and 10 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Twelve people died at the scene, including the SUV driver, and one person died at the hospital.

The SUV entered the intersection in front of the big rig, which struck the SUV on the left side. Several people were thrown from the SUV, and others were able to pull themselves out of the vehicles. The older-model Ford Expedition should only fit six people, Watson said.

Macario Mora, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection in Yuma and El Centro, said the Border Patrol was assisting law enforcement. He said the immigration status of those in the SUV was unknown and being investigated.

Authorities are working with the Mexican consulate to identify the victims.

“It was an unusual number of people in an SUV, but we don’t know who they were,” Mora said, adding that they could have been farmworkers.

The wreckage was at an intersection within a mostly undeveloped area of farmland. The region is currently wrapping up its winter harvest of lettuce and leafy greens.

United Farm Workers' spokesperson Marc Grossman said UFW workers had learned the people in the SUV were not farmworkers. For farmworkers, tragedies such as these used to be distressingly common, he said. 

Grossman recalled accidents in 1999 and 1974 which killed 13 tomato pickers in west Fresno County and 19 lettuce pickers outside of Blythe, respectively. 

In the 1974 crash, many, if not all, of the 19 lettuce pickers drowned when their bus crashed into an irrigation ditch. The seats, which were not affixed to the floor, pinned them down in the shallow water, Grossman said. In 1999, a number of the tomato pickers in the crash died after being impaled by their own tools. 

After the 1999 crash, the UFW and others signed on to a bill by then-state Sen. Dean Flores, which required similar protections for farmworkers as students enjoy in school buses. It also required individual seatbelts, that tools be stored properly while traveling and that vehicles not be overpacked. 

The law applies to any vehicle transporting farmworkers, whether it be a grower- or farm labor contractor-owned van or bus, or whether it be operated by raiteros, independent contractors who ferry farmworkers around from field to field.

California's Native deaths go uncounted

When one woman's grandmother and aunt died from COVID-19 in 2020, she made sure to fill out "Native American" on their death certificates. The thought of them going uncounted made her sick with anger, she said. 

In California, many Native Americans fear that the numbers of deaths in their community owed to the pandemic far outstrip the official tally on the public health agency's websites. A long history of being mistaken for white or Latino people at the hospital and on death certificates has Indigenous leaders, politicians and health experts worried the toll is far greater than has been documented.

“The problem is in the data itself,” said Virginia Hedrick, executive director of the Consortium for Urban Indian Health, a California nonprofit alliance of service providers dedicated to improving American Indian health care. “For me, this is a culminating event. This is historical trauma playing out in real time,” she told The Salinas Californian.

Air regulations restrict San Joaquin growers' burn piles

California's air quality board told the San Joaquin Valley, one of the most polluted regions in the state, to stop piling and burning vines and trees by 2025. Instead, growers will need to mulch their byproducts or haul them to waste disposal facilities, according to the Visalia Times-Delta.

More than a third of what farmers contributed to the air pollution in 2017 came from these burnings in the San Joaquin Valley, but farmers say they don't have the funds to remediate wood and waste in the way the air board is requiring.

 Air board staff estimate the state, federal and local governments will need to commit $15-$30 million to help farmers cover the cost.

Big Sur's Highway One faces climate change threats 

Highway 1, or the Coastal Highway, was built in the 1930s as a showcase of California's stunning beauty. It is also testament to the friction between industry and nature. Lately, it seems, spurred on by climate change, nature is winning.

Time and again, major storms, fires and mudslides force locals to fix the damage while the locals who depend on tourism lose income and time to the repairs. The state has spent $200 million in emergency funds over the last 5½ years on Highway 1 along the Big Sur coast, the Washington Post reports.

Just a few years ago, the Soberanes Fire led to a mudslide that took much of the road with it, cutting off residents from grocery stores and more. Now, it's a washout at Rat Creek. Has climate change pushed the road and what it stands for past repair? 

USA Today's Storyteller's Project comes to the West

Join the West and Sunbelt Storytellers Project as it kicks off its inaugural season with a virtual storytelling show about growing up.

Journalists at the Ventura County Star, Arizona Republic, Arizona Daily Star, Reno Gazette Journal and Salem Statesman Journal produce and host these nights to entertain, illuminate and serve their communities. Four virtual shows are planned in 2021.

The show will stream on USA TODAY Network Facebook pages across California, Arizona, Nevada and Oregon at 4 p.m. Pacific on Thursday. Register here to watch.

Quick hits

• In Mono County, a gray wolf from a northern Oregon pack has traveled father south than any other gray wolf has been known to. Known as OR-93, he's the 16th gray wolf that officials have traced going into California. Most have trekked south across the Oregon border, like OR-93. Over the past 10 years, two packs have formed in California, the Redding Record-Searchlight reports.
• Looking to spend your spring break in California? Bring a mask and prepare to quarantine: here's what's open to out-of-state traveler's and what's not from USA Today.
• A Pittsburgh, Calif., man was found dead in Salinas — a city his family had never even heard of. How did he get there, and who killed him? His family are searching for answers, reports The Salinas Californian, and are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to his killer's arrest.
• It's not just you: A study published in the American Geophysical Union's journal Advancing Earth and Space Science has found that California's rainy season is officially coming later and later, and when it does arrive, it is far sharper than it used to be, arriving all at once. That seasonal shift is leading to a longer, more intense wildfire season. 
• PHOTO GALLERY: Agricultural workers get inoculated against COVID-19. 
• Low Chinook salmon numbers on the Sacramento and Klamath rivers probably mean a restricted fishing season. State and federal fishery managers forecast the rivers would see about 200,000 fewer fish than the 2020 season. This comes on the heels of what some called the worst fishing season they'd ever experienced, reports The Stockton Record.

Kate Cimini is a journalist for The Californian. Share your story at (831) 776-5137 or email kcimini@thecalifornian.com.Subscribe  to support local journalism.