Efforts are being made to bring back to India the mortal remains of the five Indian students who were killed in the early hours of 12 March in a tragic accident involving their vehicle and a tractor-trailer on the 401 Highway in Ontario, Canada.
The five Indians who lost their lives are Mohit Chauhan, 23, Harpreet Singh, 24, Jaspinder Singh, 21, Karanpal Singh, 22 and Pawan Kumar, 22.
The Quint spoke to Jaspreet Pandher, who is a news reporter at OMNI Television in Canada, and has been covering the tragic incident's aftermath.
Repatriation of Bodies
Pandher told The Quint that the bodies of the victims have been kept at the local crematorium for now, and the necessary paperwork to bring them back to India is ongoing.
"The owner of the Brampton Crematorium & Visitation Centre, Inderjit Singh Bal, is doing all the work to ensure that the process happens smoothly. They are trying to ensure that all five bodies can reach Delhi together, and from there, to their respective homes."Jaspreet Pandher, news reporter in Canada
Five separate GoFundMe crowdfunding campaigns have also been set up for this purpose. In total, more than 1,50,000 Canadian Dollars have already been raised.
Pandher also said that a small prayer ceremony had taken place in the local gurdwara. The local government, however, has by and large been absent from the situation.
Talking about charges, Pandher said that the police have still not filed any charges against the truck driver.
"This is probably because they believe that the truck driver is not at fault. There is not much he could have done due to the circumstances".
Diaspora Students & Toronto: Employment & Community
Pandher also explained why those students were traveling from Montreal to Toronto, on a journey that was at least 400 kilometres long. He said that all the deceased students belonged to colleges in Montreal, but they all resided in the Greater Toronto Area.
While Montreal is a popular destination for international students, and even Punjab students, Toronto is where more jobs are available for graduated students.
"There is a huge Punjabi community in Toronto as well," Pandher added.
Therefore, better employment prospects and a significant diaspora community lured these students to Toronto.
Another factor was that Montreal is dominated by French-speaking people, which is not the case for Ontario.
The Tragic Accident
Talking about the cause of the accident, Pandher told The Quint that "the night these students were coming back from Montreal to Toronto, it had been snowing really heavily, with horrible weather."
The students had stopped at a small town called Belleville. It is situated between Ottawa and Toronto, along the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor.
Pandher says that at this point of time, the windshield cleaner of their car seems to have stopped working. Consequently, they parked their car on the side, but it was facing the downhill the part of the road.
"Then, a truck that was coming in from behind hit the car. The weather was so bad that it is likely that the truck driver did not even see the parker car. Even if he did see it in the last moment, the downhill road would have made it impossible for him to slow down and stop the truck on time."Jaspreet Pandher, news reporter in Canada
Additionally, he said, the one student who had stepped out to fix the windshield cleaner of the car managed to save himself by jumping away at the very last minute.
The five boys who were sitting inside the car had no chance to save themselves, and they died.
"According to the post-mortem report, apart from the grievous injuries, they also died because they were unable to breathe after a point."
There was a girl in the car, too, who survived. Pandher said that a rod had to be inserted in her mouth, due to an extremely serious jaw injury that she suffered during the accident.
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