A recent arrival from Punjab who was working to fulfill his work visa as a chef in Oliver was among the four people who died in the bus accident on a highway near Merritt, BC. Karanjot Singh Sodhi is one of four people who died in a Christmas Eve bus crash, leaving behind his wife, son and daughter in India.  Sodhi’s cousin Kalwinder Singh, a long-haul trucker from Surrey, said his family and the whole village are mourning his death. “He has a big family,” said Singh. “The whole village is very upset.”

By DESIBUZZCanada Staff With News Files

SURREY – A recent arrival from Punjab who was working to fulfill his work visa as a chef in Oliver was among the four people who died in the bus accident on a highway near Merritt, BC.

Karanjot Singh Sodhi, 41, is one of four people who died in a Christmas Eve bus crash, leaving behind his wife, son and daughter in India. 

Sodhi’s cousin Kalwinder Singh, a long-haul trucker from Surrey, said his family and the whole village are mourning his death. “He has a big family,” said Singh. “The whole village is very upset.”

Sodhi arrived in Canada on a work visa in mid-September. Singh had driven him to the winery and restaurant in Oliver where Sodhi was permitted to work under his visa and was employed as a chef.

 “He liked the town very much,” said Singh, who is the same age as Sodhi and grew up with him in their hometown of Butala.

Sodhi was travelling to Surrey to stay with Singh over the holidays so he could take his test to become a permanent resident, scheduled for Jan. 2. His plan was to get his residency and move his family to Canada.

“He was going to celebrate the New Year with us,” Singh said.

Singh spoke with his cousin on the phone while he was on the bus. He was due in Surrey at 9:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve and Singh’s wife was concerned when he wasn’t answering his phone that evening. They learned about the crash on the 11 p.m. news.

Sodhi had been getting settled as a chef at Masala Bistro at Kismet Winery in Oliver and was excited about bringing his wife and two children to Canada from the Punjab to start a better life.

 “The only dream he had was to get his family here. He missed them a lot. He spent a lot of time away from them,” friend and coworker Anshul Thakur told Global News Tuesday.

“He finally felt like everything was coming into place. All the pieces were coming together.”

Thakur spoke with Sodhi by phone shortly before the crash, just as the bus headed onto the Okanagan Connector. Sodhi had called, he said, to make sure Thakur had made it home safe from dropping him at the bus depot.

“We were almost like family. You know, you’re in a new country, you don’t have that connection. So we always had that with us.”

Kistmet chef Howard Collince Michael Samy said colleagues began to worry when they learned Singh hadn’t arrived as planned at his destination.

He described frantic efforts on Christmas Day to track Singh down, until the RCMP finally called with the devastating news, information he later had to relay to Singh’s wife.

“It was difficult for her, so she passed the phone to her father. All she could hear was the bad news. After five minutes she called me, and said ‘brother can you bring my husband back?’ And I didn’t have an answer for that question,” he said, becoming visibly emotional.

“When he is in the kitchen or inside the restaurant, you see it, like, the whole place lights up. He was always happy. You stand next to him you’ll feel happy. He was that kind of a person,” he added.

“We are going to miss him.”

Police said on December 24th at approximately 18:14 hours the BC Highway Patrol and Merritt RCMP were advised of a single vehicle collision around Loon Lake on Hwy 97c east of Merritt BC.

Police and emergency services responded and located a commercial E-bus that had gone off road to the left and rolled onto its passenger side coming to rest in the eastbound lanes.

The bus was occupied by 45 passengers and the driver. It is believed that 46 persons in total were on the bus. 

“We can confirm, tragically 4 passengers were found deceased at scene.  It is believed that 22 passengers were transported to the Kelowna hospital, 6 to Penticton hospital and 13 to Merritt hospital. The 4 deceased were transported by the BC coroners service,” Police said.

BC Highway Patrol investigators said the E-bus was travelling west along Hwy 97c from Kelowna towards Merritt when it encountered adverse road conditions. The E-bus went off road left, crossed the median and flipped onto its passenger side coming to rest in the eastbound lanes. 

Passers-by and local residents provided assistance by allowing passengers to warm up in their vehicles and providing blankets while emergency services arrived. All passengers were transported by BC Ambulance Service to local hospitals. There were no other vehicles involved in the collision. The E-bus was equipped with seat belts, unfortunately it appears the majority of passengers were not wearing them.

The passengers were a mix of local, non local and foreign nationals. This was a regularly scheduled commercial bus trip from Kelowna to Vancouver.

The road conditions were fluid, transitioning from clear wet roads to frozen with ice and snow on the road surface due to the time of day (sun setting) and changing weather conditions. Rain and hail was falling. RCMP Collision Re-constructionists attended the scene.

Singh, who has driven a truck on highways both in Canada and the U.S., said that the part of the Okanagan Connector where the crash happened suffers from bad conditions every winter.

“You as the media have to let the government know how bad it is,” Singh told Postmedia News. “They did not clear the road. This is very terrible for the truckers. It’s too slippery.”

Singh said it took him 12 hours to drive from Golden to Surrey before Christmas, a trip that usually takes almost six hours, because of poor road conditions. During the past two weeks Singh said he saw multiple crashes on the roads every day, the worst stretches between Hope and Kamloops, Kamloops and Revelstoke and Revelstoke and Golden.

The names of all the passengers who died will be released by the coroner’s office after next of kin are notified, Kelowna RCMP spokesman Const. James Ward said Monday.

If you witnessed the collision and have not spoken to investigators, or have dash-cam footage of the E-bus prior to the collision, or were a passenger that has not been identified and contacted by Police, to contact Corporal S. AUDLEY via email at: Samantha.audley@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.