Three international students The people killed in a highway accident in Toronto last week have been identified by the Consulate General of Bangladesh.
A car traveling at a high speed on Highway 427 flew off a concrete ramp, rolled into a ditch and then crashed into another concrete wall before bursting into flames late Monday, police said.
Ontario Provincial Police said four international students from Bangladesh living in Toronto were pulled from the car.
A 20-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy in the back seat were pronounced dead on the highway and a 20-year-old woman in the front passenger seat died after being taken to a hospital, police said. ,
Consul General Lutfor Rahman said the three students who died were Arian Alam Dipto, Shahryar Mahir Khan and Angela Baroi.
Rahman said the driver, Nibir Kumar, 21, the son of popular Bangladeshi singer Kumar Vishwajeet, is in critical condition at a Toronto hospital.
“The Consulate General extends its deepest condolences to the bereaved family members of the deceased and prays for their eternal peace and speedy recovery of the injured,” Rahman wrote in a statement.
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Rizwan Ibn Ahmad, who identified himself as a friend of Dipto’s, said he loved food, video games, and hanging out with his close friends and family. Dipto had “a very friendly personality, jovial and cheerful” and dreamed of studying outside Bangladesh, they said.
Another friend of Dipto’s, Sumaiya Tabassum, said on Facebook that she was in “shock, complete denial and disbelief” over Dipto’s death as she had wished him a happy birthday just days earlier.
“It is not fair that you lived a life less than mine. You were just a kid,” she wrote in a post remembering Dipto. “You were always there for everyone. Still texting you expecting a reply from the other end.
Ayman Rashid, who identified himself on Facebook as a close friend of Khan, said he was “a very polite person with courtesy to everyone.”
Visitations were scheduled for Monday evening for Baroi in Toronto’s west end, while a service for Dipto and Khan will be held on Monday in the city’s east end.
Rahman said in an interview that the families of the victims are working to return their bodies to Bangladesh after memorial services.
Nazia Hussain, vice-president of the National Bangladeshi-Canadian Council, has said that all the international students in the car attended various schools in the Greater Toronto Area.
Hussain said the accident should be a warning to other international students coming to Canada about how road conditions can be different here, especially during winter.
“I want to tell them that you are very young, you should be very careful when you are driving at night. The condition of the roads in Bangladesh is not the same.”
Hussain said the families of the international students have been devastated.
“Their parents are in a very bad condition,” he said, adding that his organization was grieving with the families.
Last winter, five students from India were killed in a crash between a car and a tractor-trailer on Highway 401 in Ontario.
Harpreet Singh, Jaspinder Singh, Karanpal Singh, Mohit Chauhan and Pawan Kumar, all aged between 21 and 24 years, were declared dead on the spot. Police said they all studied in Montreal or the Greater Toronto areas.
With files from Fakiha Baig.
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