An Indian truck driver was killed in a road mishap in regional New South Wales on Saturday when his truck fell into a deep gorge.
33-year-old Parminder Singh, alias Rinku, was working as a truck driver with a Melbourne-based trucking company and was returning to Melbourne from Brisbane when the mishap occurred near Gilgandra in New South Wales on Saturday afternoon.
“It was raining very heavily and he was on a steep downhill stretch and it seems the truck failed to stop in time which caused it to roll off the road into a gorge,” a friend told SBS Punjabi.
"Initially we were planning to arrange for sending his body back to India but the trucking company he was working for has taken it upon itself once the autopsy is done at New Castle," he added.
Singh's family in Sangrur (Punjab), India learned of his death through his friends in Shepparton where he lived before moving to Melbourne.
The family has urged the Indian foreign ministry to step in to expedite the repatriation process.
“I was informed by his friends, who are making efforts to bring the body back, that the doctors are yet to perform the autopsy. This is causing unnecessary delay. I urge minister of external affairs Sushma Swaraj to help us so that we get his body soon,” Singh’s father Hardev Singh Rathi told the Hindustan Times.
Singh came to Australia in 2008 as a student and became a permanent resident in 2013.
