Trip to learn in U.S. ends in fatal crash for 2 Costa Rican students

Two college students on an exchange program die in a car accident on I-75. Friends say they had become disillusioned.

By CARY DAVIS

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 16, 2000

SAN ANTONIO, Fla. -- Costa Rican college students Ronny Aguilar and Oscar Campos arrived in the United States in December to broaden their educational experiences and make some money.

But their excitement soon crumbled into disappointment, friends said.

The work exchange program that Aguilar, 19, and Campos, 20, signed up for sent them first to a casino boat in Biloxi, Miss. But friends said the two were fired immediately because they were under 21.

The program, friends said, then transferred Aguilar and Campos to Pasco County, where they got jobs at Saddlebrook Resort. They didn't so much mind washing bedsheets and salad greens. The problem was that their rent payment each month for an apartment in Wesley Chapel took nearly everything in their paychecks.

On Monday night, friends said, Aguilar and Campos drove to a church in Blanton to arrange cheaper accommodations and eat dinner. Aguilar was supposed to report for work at Saddlebrook at 10 p.m.

They were on their way back, driving south on rain-slickened Interstate 75 at 8:05 p.m., when Aguilar lost control. The 1993 Ford he was driving veered across the grass median just south of the State Road 52 interchange and slammed into a northbound semitrailer truck, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Aguilar and Campos were killed instantly.

On Tuesday, as 19 other Costa Rican students who work at Saddlebrook mourned the loss of their friends, a small white cross marked the site of the collision.

"We're all in shock," Priscilla Zamora, 19, said through sobs.

Aguilar was a computer engineering major and Campos was studying business management, she said.

On Monday night, Zamora said she called Campos' mother and delivered the tragic news.

"She didn't believe me," Zamora said.

It wasn't clear what caused Aguilar to lose control. The investigators assigned to the case could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The driver of the truck, 57-year-old Lawrence James Lowe, was not injured, reports said. Lowe did not return a message left at his Bradenton home.

Margarita Romo, executive director of Farmworkers Self-Help and an advocate for east Pasco's Hispanic community, said she was trying to make arrangements to send the bodies of Aguilar and Campos home to their parents.

Romo said she spoke with Aguilar and Campos last week and sensed their frustration. "I told them, "I think you should go home. It sounds like you're being exploited,' " Romo recalled.

"They came here to explore this country," Romo continued. "And what do they get? They get sent home in a box."

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