TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

The father of a Lost Hills agricultural worker killed on the job Dec. 30 says the driver of the skip loader that hit his son may have been distracted and his vision partly blocked at the time of the accident.

Citing an eyewitness account of the 6:24 a.m. accident in Buttonwillow, Rafael Arizoca Jimenez said two people were inside the loader and they may have been talking when the vehicle struck and then ran over his son, 32-year-old Braulio Arizoca Perez.

Jimenez also said the loader's scoop was raised high enough that the driver's view forward may have been impeded. He added that the tragedy has been very difficult for him.

"It's very painful to lose a son," said Jimenez, who has four other sons and a daughter.

Perez, an employee of Bakersfield-based Cal Ag Resources whose job it was to remove plastic covering from almond trees, is survived by four daughters between the ages of 4 and 9. Jimenez said his son came to the United States from the Mexican state of Chiapas at about the age of 12. A company representative said Perez had worked for the company since April.

Cal-OSHA says Perez was working on land owned by Wasco-based almond grower Sunny Gem when he was struck and then run over by the loader.

Sunny Gem did not return a call requesting comment Monday.

Labor contractor Santiago Martin Jr., a manager at Cal Ag Resources, confirmed that two people -- neither of them employees of Cal Ag -- were in the loader during the accident and that the scoop was raised such that the lowest point was about 3 feet off the ground.

Martin said he did not think the second person presented a distraction, but that a second person in the vehicle "is a concern" of his.

"We've interviewed operator and passenger, and neither of them claim to have distracted the other," he said. He added that Perez's death is an "incredibly unfortunate situation."

Martin also noted that portable lighting was in place near the site of the accident.

"There seems to have been enough light to provide for proper visibility," he said.

Cal-OSHA spokesman Dean Fryer declined Monday to comment on the ongoing investigation. But he said the issues of having two people inside the loader as well as a raised scoop "will be addressed in our investigative process."

Jimenez said he was working some 15 miles from the accident site when his son was killed, and that he rushed to be with Perez when he heard the news. He said he learned of the accident circumstances from his son's friend and co-worker, Jose Fermin Leon Mendez.

Mendez confirmed Jimenez's assertions about the accident and said the driver and passenger appeared to have been talking around the time Perez was struck. Normally only one person sits in a loader, he said.

Mendez said he had no opinion as to who was at fault, if anyone.

"I don't know where the fault is," he said in Spanish, adding that he has been interviewed by Cal-OSHA.