ASSOCIATED PRESS

October 7, 2006

Farmworker's family gets $180k from insurance in heat death case

 

BAKERSFIELD -- The family of a farmworker whose heat-related death prompted new state rules for outdoor laborers will receive an insurance death benefit of about $180,000, the United Farm Workers of America union announced Friday.

The children of Constantino Cruz Hernandez will get payments of $448 total every two weeks until the youngest child turns 18. The settlement from the labor contractor's insurance company was based on Hernandez's wages, said Robert F. Perez, an attorney for the family.

Hernandez, 24, and four other Central Valley farm workers died from heat illnesses last year while working in triple-digit temperatures. He was picking tomatoes near Shafter when he got sick. He was treated at a hospital but released and collapsed at home the next day.

The claim was originally denied because he did not die right away, Perez said.

"It's a very complex problem. Heat can cause a very serious medical situation that, in this case, was not solved with some water and rest," Hernandez said.

California now guarantees outdoor workers a quart of water each hour, training to recognize heat stroke symptoms, shade and breaks.