Dozens of taxis participated in a procession Wednesday to honour Sanehpal Singh Randhawa, the Vancouver cab driver killed in a collision with a suspected drunk driver.
Randhawa was struck by a speeding Car2Go/ShareNow vehicle around 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 29 at East 1st Avenue and Renfrew Street. The driver of the other vehicle, confirmed by Global News as Irish national Gary Holohan, remains in hospital in serious condition.
“It’s a sad day,” said Yellow Cab president Kulwant Sahota ahead of a funeral service in Delta for Randhawa.
“It’s somebody from the Yellow Cab family, from the family of the taxi industry that we’ve lost. And such a young person.”
Randhawa’s family was in Canada for the service, and spoke tearfully to a packed house about the loss of their son and brother.
After the funeral, Randhawa’s brother Jatinderdeep, who lives in Brisbane, said Sanehpal had planned to travel to Australia to meet his four-year-old nephew for the first time in February.
He said the family is still seeking answers about Sanehpal’s death.
“My brother is not in this world anymore, but we want justice. We don’t want these kinds of things happening,” he said, speaking to allegations the other driver in the crash may have been impaired.
Vancouver police have confirmed that the Car2Go vehicle had fled a CounterAttack road check when asked to pull over, and that investigators are looking at impairment as a possible contributing factor in the crash.
Global News has also verified that the vehicle was travelling in excess of 120 km/hr.
“I got told that it was an accident, but when I spoke to everyone here I can’t say that was an accident,” said Jatinderdeep.
Randhawa’s brother also expressed frustration with the amount of information the family was getting from Canadian authorities.
He said Canadian police and officials have never contacted the family about Randhawa’s death, and that they learned about it from the taxi company and Randhawa’s friends.
“We have no idea what’s been happening here, all we are doing is waiting and waiting and waiting,” Jatinderdeep said.
“Even his funeral is done, we’ve yet to receive any information. What’s happened? Who was the guy who took my brother’s life? Was he drunk? Was he over-speeding?
“We have a lot of questions.”
On Wednesday, Vancouver police expressed their condolences to the family.
“Now that the family is in Canada, investigators will be reaching out to the family and providing them as much information as possible,” said Const. Tania Visintin.
Vancouver police have yet to formally confirm that Holohan was the man in the second vehicle, and as of Wednesday it remained unclear if he had recovered sufficiently to be interviewed by investigators.
Global News has learned that the man’s family has travelled to Vancouver to be at his side as he recovers in hospital.
A GoFundMe campaign has been established for Randhawa’s family to help cover travel and funeral costs.
A candle-light vigil for Randhawa is also scheduled for Sunday at 5 p.m. at Clinton Park in Vancouver, just blocks from the scene of the fatal crash.
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