B.C. bus crash victim’s cousin speaks out on highway conditions

A long-haul trucker whose cousin was killed in a bus crash in B.C.’s interior blames road conditions and poor maintenance for the rollover that killed four and injured dozens.

Kalwinder Singh says his 41-year-old cousin, Karanjot Singh Sodhi, has a wife and two young children in India. He came to Canada on a work permit about three months ago to work as a long-haul trucker like Singh, but was taking the bus to meet with family for the holidays.

Singh says he was on the phone with Sodhi barely half an hour before the bus flipped due to icy conditions, with his cousin’s final words being an invitation to a family celebration.

Instead of a family celebration at the end of the month, however, Singh says he’ll be collecting his cousin’s body from Kamloops.

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Singh says he has experience driving the highways saying the roads from eastern B.C. to Surrey are among the worst in North America. Singh urges people to be careful about that particular section of highway this time of year.

“Please be careful about that highway…every year the same story, they did not clean the road,” he said.

A GoFundMe has been set up to raise money in order to help with Sodhi’s funeral and family support, with over $16,000 raised as of Dec. 27.

The crash took place on Christmas Eve on Highway 97C Okanagan Connector east of Merritt, B.C. The RCMP believes icy road conditions contributed to the incident. Interior Health says the remaining seven people in the hospital as a result of the crash are all expected to survive.