SINGAPORE – Even though they were almost 3,000km apart, six-year-old Saima Islam was comforted by her father’s voice every day.

Employed as a welder in Singapore, he would call his family in Bangladesh after the day’s work was done.

But the night of Dec 14, 2024, was the last time they heard from him. The next morning, Mr Shohag Mohammad, 40, was killed in an accident while travelling in the back of a lorry in Tuas.

Since then, Saima has been asking why her father has stopped calling home, said Mr Shohag’s brother, Mr Mohammad Siraj.

Speaking to The Straits Times via a translator, Mr Siraj said the family is still in shock.

The phone call they received on Dec 15, 2024, from Mr Shohag’s employer, CK2 Engineering, telling them that he had died in a lorry accident, was a bolt from the blue.

Describing Mr Shohag as generous, respectful and loving, Mr Siraj, 55, who works as a mechanic, said his brother would talk about Singapore as being a safe place to work and say he never had any issues here.

Besides his young daughter, he leaves behind his wife, Sarida, who is in her 20s; his mother, who is in her late 70s; and four other family members, all living in Munshiganj district, about an hour away from Bangladesh’s capital city Dhaka.

Mr Siraj said the money that Mr Shohag sent home – about 40,000 taka (S$450) a month – was important as it helped to pay for the family’s daily expenses.

“We miss him a lot,” Mr Siraj said, adding that the worry now is for Mr Shohag’s daughter’s future.

According to official documents seen by ST, Mr Shohag was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident in Tuas South Avenue 9 at about 10am on Dec 15, 2024.

“Multiple injuries” was listed as the cause of death.

His body was examined at the mortuary of the Health Sciences Authority’s Forensic Medicine Division, before it was returned to Bangladesh, arriving at Mr Shohag’s hometown two days after the accident.

Records show that Mr Shohag was trained as a shipyard worker, attending safety courses conducted by Singapore firms as far back as 2008.

However, the circumstances of the accident, which injured two other workers, remain unclear.

It has been said that a heavy tool box at the back of the lorry had fallen onto Mr Shohag, b...