[www.inewsguyana.com] – A York Region family is devastated after hearing a beloved son, father, brother and husband was killed Friday in an early-morning industrial accident in Vaughan (Canada).
Deodat Khemraj, 51, of Markham, who drives for Mississauga shipping company IBL Transportation, was reportedly inspecting the container he was to pick up at a Doney Crescent lot near Keele Street and Hwy. 7 about 7 a.m. Friday morning when he was crushed to death.
He is originally from Wakenaam Island, Guyana. The man’s father, who was at the accident scene, said he heard his son was crushed and there was blood all over the place.
“They wouldn’t allow me to see him,” the father told yorkregion.com at the scene. “He was probably inspecting the trailer.”
Other family members soon arrived and were upset they weren’t allowed to see the body that was out of sight, but only metres away.
The victim’s brother, Herdat Khemraj, said he received a call at about 7:30 a.m. about the accident.
“Right now, we’re just lost for words. He has passed away. We don’t know what’s going on. Police officers are doing their part,” said Herdat Khemraj, 52. “I just got news there was an accident and that’s where it is right now. My mother is in shock, she can’t believe her son is gone.”
Just after he finished speaking, a van arrived outside the gates of the company with the dead man’s mother and two of his sisters.
One was heard crying, “Oh god, I just want to see the body, what he looks like, please”. But York Regional Police and the coroner would not allow family members to see the man’s body.
It was removed in a police van about 10:30 a.m. and taken to the Centre for Forensic Sciences at Keele Street and Hwy. 401.
Details of what happened are still unclear at press time as the investigation is ongoing and is being conducted by the Ministry of Labour. Ministry officials were on site investigating Khemraj’s truck and talking to company representatives.
Company representatives at the scene had no comment.
A man who identified himself only as the owner of the company refused to provide a comment or his name. He was seen talking to Ministry of Labour investigators and police officers at the scene.
The dead man’s wife and two children, a teenager aged 17 or 18, according to his grandfather, and another son about 5 or 6 years old, appeared shocked as they looked through the gates at the accident scene.
They were silent as they stood amid relatives and were comforted by aunts and uncles. Like her sisters-in-law and father-in-law, the man’s wife wanted to see his body, but was denied from doing so.
Herdat Khemraj said he will begin preparations for his younger brother’s funeral, saying it will be about a week before he can gather all the relatives of the extended family together for a service. (cambridgetimes)
