‘Jubilation’ turns into desolation as parents await arrival of son in a coffin after Toronto crash

Arian Alam Dipto, who just started classes at Toronto’s Humber College, planned to become a chartered accountant, his father says

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 16 Feb 2023, 08:22 PM
Updated : 16 Feb 2023, 08:22 PM

Manjurul Islam, a security guard at Jubilation, an apartment block in Dhaka’s West Nakhalpara neighbourhood, has been inconsolable since he heard the news of the death of Arian Alam Dipto, one of the casualties who succumbed to his injuries when a BMW sedan crashed in Toronto on Monday. 

“When Dipto and his family came to live here, he was still in primary school. I saw him growing up in front of my eyes,” he said in tears. 

The death of the youngest of their children in the tragedy has left Dipto’s parents bedridden. 

The father, ATM Alamgir, owner of a real estate business, said one of his daughters, who lives in the US, travelled to Toronto to arrange for her brother's body to be ferried to Dhaka. 

“We didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye to our son. We have to wait for his body now. His [Dipto] mother has fallen sick since she heard the news,” she said. 

According to the father, Dipto moved to Toronto in 2021 for higher studies after completing his GCSE and A levels from Dhaka’s Mastermind and Oxford International School, respectively. 

After completing a diploma from a community college in Toronto, he just started studying for chartered accounting at Humber College in the Canadian city, Alamgir said. 

According to CBC News, a Canadian broadcaster, a car with a driver and three other passengers travelling at extremely high speeds on a highway flew over a concrete ramp, landed in a ditch, and then hit another concrete wall before it burst into flames late Monday night. 

Dipto and Shahriar Khan, who were in the backseat, died on the spot, while Angela Shreya Baroi, sitting beside the driver, was pronounced dead after she was rushed to a hospital by first responders. 

The driver, Nibir Kumar, the lone child of the famed Bangladeshi musician Kumar Bishwajit, was in critical condition and is now being treated in the hospital's intensive care. 

His parents, Bishwajit and Naima Sultana, flew to Toronto on Tuesday. 

After issuing a statement mourning the loss of three young adults, National Bangladeshi-Canadian Council, a community organisation in Canada, warned others to be aware that road conditions in Canada might differ from what they are used to. 

CBC News quoted Nazia Hossain, the organisation's vice president, as saying the crash should be a wake-up call for other international students who come to Canada. 

"I want to tell them you are very young and should be very careful when driving at night. It's not the same road conditions in Bangladesh," she said in a phone interview with CBC News on Wednesday. 

“It's a very sad story. It is a great loss.”