Ottawa: Two young international students from India have been identified as the victims of a traffic collision that happened last week close to the Canadian capital of Ottawa. The mishap took place on May 12 in a single car crash, according to the Ontario Provincial Police.
The victims were identified by the network Prime Asia as 21-year-old Balwinder Singh and 22-year-old Sachin Chugh, both from Punjab, based on information from fellow students and members of the Indo-Canadian community. They were both residents of the town of Brampton in the Greater Toronto Area or GTA and were traveling to Ottawa when the tragic accident on Highway 417 claimed their lives.
Chugh was a student at Canadore College, while Singh was at Alpha College.
Their funerals will take place in Brampton, and their remains will likely be flown back to India. A family friend set up an online fundraiser for Chugh for returning the remains to India.
According to a media report on the day of the mishap, Ottawa Fire Services said the vehicle the young students were travelling in was found upended about 120 metres away from the road on a neighbouring field.
The two occupants trapped in the vehicle were extricated by fire department personnel but were subsequently declared dead at the spot by paramedics attending at the scene.
This isn’t the first accident in Canada to claim multiple lives of students from India. In March last year, a fatal accident in southern Ontario claimed the lives of five international students from India.