Friends, kin mourn loss of Sikh man who died in Canada bus accident

Toronto, Dec 29

Friends and relatives of Karanjot Singh Sodhi, who died in a Christmas Eve bus crash in Canada, have mourned his loss describing him as a kind, hard-working and a cheerful person.

Sodhi, 41, was from Amritsar and had only recently entered Canada on a work permit in September 2022.

"I'm very hurt for the last two days (sic)," Kalwinder Singh, Sodhi's cousin, told CBC News.

Singh, who described Sodhi as kind and hard-working, said he was looking forward to celebrating the holidays with him.

Anshul Thakur, who worked with Sodhi described him as an "upbeat person who almost never had a bad day". "He always had a cheerful smile," Thakur said.

Sodhi, who was employed as a chef in a restaurant of an Okanagan winery, is survived by his mother, wife and a six-year-old son and two-year-old daughter back home in Butala, Amritsar.

"(Sodhi's) wife is in a very bad shape after hearing the news. His mother, too," Singh told CBC News.

A GoFundMe page has been started to arrange for his funeral and support his family.

The bus crashed around 6 pm on Highway 97C east of Merritt, about 170 miles northeast of Vancouver killing four people and injuring many others. The British Columbia Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement that "extremely icy" road conditions along the highway caused the bus rollover. However, they added that a probe into the exact cause of the accident has been launched and that the bus driver is assisting the police.