A coroners inquest into a fatal car crash that killed three Indo-Canadian farm women in March 2007, has served to highlight the implementation of road safety norms and working conditions of immigrant farm workers.

Vehicles carrying immigrant farm workers are often dangerous, the inquest was told.

“These are vulnerable workers. They aren’t on our radar screens. They work early in the morning in fields. They don’t feel they have rights. They don’t speak the language,” said B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair while testifying in the three days inquest.

Amarjit Kaur Bal, 52, Sarabjit Kaur Sidhu,30 and Sukhwinder Kaur Punia,46 were killed on the Trans-Canada Highway in Abbotsford, B.C. in the fatal car crash. 14 other people, including the driver, were injured in the accident.

Witnesses testified that the 15-passenger van had faulty brakes, bad tires, was overloaded and was equipped with only two seatbelts.

In July 2003, another Indo-Canadian woman Mohinder Kaur Sunar was crushed to death in the wreck of a van without seatbelts.

Sinclair invoked that accident to reveal that an inquest into that crash had called for a crackdown on the unsafe transportation of farm workers.

The three farm workers killed would be alive today if the province had cracked down on safety then, he told the coroner's inquest.

A coroner's jury and WorkSafe BC had urged after Sunar's death that the province review the Motor Vehicle Act to reinforce laws on seatbelt use, overloading and vehicle safety.