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Canada: Police investigate fatal accident that claimed lives of 5 Indian students
The Indo-Canadian community has promised whatever help is necessary to the next of kin of the victims of the fatal mishap.
Canadian police continue to investigate the fatal accident in southern Ontario that claimed the lives of five students from India in the early hours of Saturday night.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are looking into whether the rear-ending of the passenger van occurred because it stopped on the side of the road as one of the occupants, possibly the driver, exited to clean the front of the vehicle.
The students were identified as Harpreet Singh, 24, Jaspinder Singh, 21, Karanpal Singh, 22, Mohit Chouhan, 23, and Pawan Kumar, 23. According to Indian Embassy officials, Pawan Kumar hailed from Haryana while the other four were from Punjab.
Driving conditions may already have been difficult because of recent snow. There were a total of eight occupants of the van; the five deceased, two who were injured and treated at a nearby hospital and are believed to be out of danger, and the person who was outside the vehicle and was unharmed.
Most of them, seven of whom were from Punjab and one from Haryana, were students in Montreal but residents in the Greater Toronto Area township of Brampton.
The local Indo-Canadian community has promised whatever help is necessary to the next of kin of the victims of the fatal mishap. Montreal-based Dr Shivendra Dwivedi, national president of the Canada India Global Forum, said, “Our community feels shattered to lose these kids. If any help is needed, we’ll be there.”
He said they were ready to assist in arranging funerals or even financially.
At least three of the dead students and one of the survivors were studying at the Canada College in Montreal, according to the news agency Canadian Press. “We’re all in a state of shock,” a spokesperson for the school, John David Couturier, told the agency.
India’s consulate in Toronto has deputed a team to coordinate with Canadian authorities and the families of the victims of the tragedy.
The collision occurred at around 3:45am on Saturday on Highway 401 in the province of Ontario. The driver of the tractor-trailer was uninjured.
