Eight people killed in Madera County crash identified. Fundraisers for families planned
All eight people who were killed in a head-on collision last week in Madera were officially identified by the Madera County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday.
The crash occurred just after 6 a.m. Friday on Avenue 7 near Road 22 in Madera when an east-bound Chevrolet truck collided with a westbound GMC van. The van was carrying eight farmworkers from Kerman who were on their way to work.
Seven of the workers, along with the driver of the truck, were pronounced dead at the scene. The only survivor, Benito Perez, 33, is in stable condition and recovering at Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno.
The people who were killed were:
▪ Fidel Filomeno Ojeda, 34
▪ Pedro Hernandez Ojeda, 35
▪ Roberto Banuelos Flores, 57
▪ Hector Manuel Orozco Ordonez, 34, of Jalisco, Mexico
▪ Juvenal Jacobo Talavera, 24, of Michoacan, Mexico
▪ Alfredo Sanchez Morales, 30, of Guerrero, Mexico
▪ Victor Hernandez Cirilo, 30, of Guerrero, Mexico
▪ Robert Jerry Kovar, 78, of Auberry, who was driving the Chevrolet truck
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The Fresno Bee identified Cirilo, Morales, Talavera, Ordonez and Kovar through their families and friends, fundraising pages confirmed by a GoFundMe spokesperson and CHP. In the days since the crash, several news outlets have also reported names of the victims and the states in Mexico where they were originally from, including Telemundo 23 and Fox 26.
KVPR on Monday reported a full list of the names of the workers who were killed and how they will be remembered after speaking to friends and family members of the seven who died.
Kayla Gates, a spokesperson for the Madera County Sheriff’s Office, said Tuesday morning that the department had not previously released the names of the victims because it had not yet finished notifying all of the next of kin.
Family at hospital with survivor
The difficulty in notifying next of kin immediately may be because some of the victims did not have much family in the United States, said Mayra Betancourt, the wife of Perez, who was the only survivor of the accident.
She and her mother, Aurora Estrada, have been by Perez’s side since Friday. Betancourt and Perez have a 1-year-old daughter and Betancourt has five children who she said Perez has cared for.
“He’s doing very good,” Betancourt said, “but he’s still in so much pain.”
Perez, like several of the men who died, is originally from Guerrero, Mexico. Morales and Cirilo were like family to Perez, Betancourt said.
“Every weekend they would be barbecuing,” she said. “If he (Perez) needed to go wash clothes at the laundromat, they’d come pick him up just to be around him.”
Betancourt said Perez is well aware that his friends have died. She said Morales and Cirilo were “very kind, respectful, lovable people.”
“They would always help us out if we needed a little here and there,” she said.
“If we were short on bills for the month, they would say, ‘Hit me up if you need help,’” Estrada said.
Ordonez was described by his neice, Lina Orozco, as his family’s “main support.” She wrote on his GoFundMe page that he was “a hard working man and loving person.”
The families affected are working with FUERZA, an advocacy group in Kerman, and the Consulate of Mexico to send the bodies of those who died to their home states in Mexico. Betancourt said Perez hopes to be released from the hospital before that happens.
FUERZA is organizing a vigil in Kerman this week for the victims, but had not yet determined when as of Tuesday. The Kerman community has garnered a lot of support for the victims’ families, organizing different fundraisers and sales of Mexican food.
David Reyes, a friend of the victims, said an event planned for this weekend will raise money for all of the victims.
The Bee has compiled a list of verified GoFundMe pages that you can donate to.
