Van crash kills 3 female farm workers

March 8th, 2007 by admin

14 other women injured as vehicle clips trucks, then rolls

The strength drained from trucker Jagjeet Sidhu’s body as he learned his wife was among the victims of a horrific highway crash in Abbotsford yesterday.

Sarbjit Kaur Sidhu, 30, the mother of his three young children, was one of three farm workers killed.

Fourteen others were injured when the van smashed into a concrete divider on the Trans-Canada Highway just west of the Sumas interchange at about 6:30 a.m.

Police are investigating whether there were enough seats in the vehicle for all 17 people. It was licensed for 15 passengers. There was a plywood bench at the back of the van.

“It appears as though there was wood at the back,” said RCMP

Const. Dave Babineau. “I’ve spoken to investigators and they’re not able to confirm whether that was a bench that was being used, or what the reason for the wood was, but that will be looked into.

“If the vehicle was designed for 10 people . . . and there were 17 people in the vehicle because alterations were made, there is definitely something wrong there,” Babineau said.

“Some of the people were ejected, so that would tell me from experience that some of the people were not belted in.”

Killed along with Sarbjit Kaur Sidhu were Amarjit Kaur Bal, 52, and Sukhvinder Kaur Punia, 46.

Sidhu said his cousin identified the body of his wife when police showed him pictures.

“I was near 100 Mile House and I got a phone call from a cousin and I could no longer drive so I parked my truck right there and got in with another trucker,” said Sidhu.

Harsharan Bal, 26, said he sponsored his mother, Amarjit Kaur Bal, his father and a sister and they arrived here from India in June.

“I heard on the radio that there had been a crash,” he said about first reports from Radio India. Police showed him pictures of the bodies and he identified his mother.

Darshan Singh Punia, the husband of the third victim, Sukhvinder Kaur Punia, said it was to have been her third day working at a Chilliwack greenhouse where the workers were headed.

“We came here on Oct. 12 from India, my wife and I and two children,” said Punia. “She left for work very early and told me lunch was ready when I needed it and to lock the door after her.

“Don’t even ask how I feel, I feel very, very bad and no one can understand the pain.”

Frightened relatives could find out little about the victims in the first hours after the crash.

“We want to know where our family members are,” said a man whose sister-in-law was in the van. “We’ve gone door to door, from hospital to hospital.”

Five people were taken to MSA Hospital in Abbotsford. Three were later discharged. Four were taken to the Mission hospital and three to Chilliwack. The injured, all women, are aged 20 to 50.

Sixteen ambulances attended, including two helicopters and two mobile command units. The accident closed the Trans-Canada in both directions for six hours.

Police, working in the rain, which may have caused the van to hydroplane out of control, used small green pylons to map the path the van took before it crashed, while the bodies of the dead remained hidden beneath yellow tarps until 10 a.m. Shoes, bags and coats littered the highway.

Gravel truck driver Robert Slater was driving east when he saw the van hit a guard rail. He said it then veered toward his truck and clipped one of his trailers. The van bounced back in front of another semi, denting its front bumper, before flipping on to its roof and stopping on the concrete barrier.

“It’s horrible,” said Slater. “I checked to see if anybody needed help. There was enough people around. I couldn’t stand to look at it.”

Manpreet Grewal of Abbotsford Community Services said families are “devastated” by the accident.

But she said it’s something that was “waiting to happen.”

“These people were airlifted in death, but in life they don’t even get a seat-belt,” she said. “The irony is terrible. We have been trying to get attention about these conditions for years, but nothing changes.”

sjiwa@png.canwest.com

gluymes@png.canwest.com

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PAST CRASHES

B.C. farm workers have faced numerous perils while being transported to work in vans:

- In 1991, a converted school bus carrying 18 farm workers near the Alex Fraser Bridge lost its rear axle and four wheels, sending 11 people to hospital.

- In August 1992, 18 workers were injured when their van blew a tire and rolled over twice on the Sumas River Bridge in Abbotsford, almost falling into the river.

- On Thanksgiving Day 1997, 10 farm workers escaped without injury when the brakes failed on their van and they plunged 60 metres down an embankment near Kamloops.

- In July 2003 a van crashed, killing one woman and injuring 18 other farm labourers on their way to work in Surrey.

- In November 2003 nine of 14 occupants of a van were injured when it crashed in Abbotsford.

- In September 2004, 10 of 16 farm workers were injured when a van flipped into a roadside ditch in Delta around 34B Avenue and 64th Street. Six went to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

- In June 2004, three workers were injured when their vehicle with 11 occupants crashed into another vehicle near Abbotsford. Three workers suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to hospital along with two others in the other vehicle.

Source: The Vancouver Province (www.canada.com)

© The Vancouver Province 2007

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