Ionut Suiugan

• Thursday, May 11th 2023 approx. 6 AM EST, my cousin Raul Suiugan receives a call from Joe (Joseph Braum), my father’s Employer/Dispatch and the owner of the truck Ioan Suiugan was driving, informing him that his uncle got hit in the head with a strap; he was informed by GM Safety Tonawanda. Raul informed me right away with a phone call. Joe worked for Arrow Logistics at that time and now works for Square One in Lansing, MI. (Our father had a missed call from Joe on May 11^th, 5:28 AM)

• I work as dispatch, the night shift, but I took my laptop and left towards my sister right away. We decided to go be by our father’s side because we were informed that he is in critical condition and might not make it by the time we arrive; he was being kept alive by the machines.

• On our way to the hospital, G.M. Representatives kept calling my sister, insisting that they needed to find the truck keys because it was blocking the docks and slowing down their workflow, but we didn’t know where the keys were yet.

• On May 11^th, 2023 around 3 PM EST after driving from Michigan, approx. 400 miles, we arrived at Buffalo Mercy Hospital in NY, the 2nd hospital our father was taken after Kenmore Hospital, for higher care, and because of his serious injuries. We found him unresponsive, barely alive with tubes down his throat, bandages around his head, and a scraped knee.

• At Buffalo Hospital, was waiting for us 3 ladies, 2 Medical Representative from GM Tonawanda, but one of them, looking really sad, left the room shortly after we sat down; and the third person in that room was a RN from Buffalo Mercy. During our conversation, Voichita Boboc (Aunt) was on the phone with us because she owns a nursing home and has medical expertise. She was also very concerned since she was Ioan Suiugan’s sister. While the GM rep. explained what they knew happened, it didn’t make sense to us or my aunt. The GM representative kept saying they believe that he was without a heartbeat for over an hour and he has very low chances of waking up. She kept insisting we should “unplug him from the machines.” We insisted to both doctors that we want a CT scan done because we see bandages around his head, and Ioan Suiugan’s employer told us that he was hit in the head with a strap. They advised us that he cannot be moved due to his critical condition. The doctor told us they’ll give us some time with our father, but to decide after if we keep him alive or not.

• After approx. 1 hour, we both decided not to unplug him; we couldn’t do it. We left the hospital shortly after to look for a hotel. We were scheduled to meet GM officials the next day to receive an official rapport with the events from that night and to recover the truck because we found the keys in the hospital, in our father’s pocket, and since I have a chauffeur license, I decided to recover the truck myself and return it to Joe (the owner).

• On May 12^th, 10:20 AM, my sister and I, arrived at GM Tonawanda Engine. After we checked in with the security guard (Who mentioned that the entire plant is talking about what happened to our father), we were told to wait; He will let them know we arrived and someone will be with us shortly to give us more info. We tried to ask the security guard what he knows, but he mentioned that he is not allowed to talk about it.

• About 10-20 minutes later, Pamela Bayers (Ryder Representative) comes out from behind the door to inform us that they didn’t expect us to arrive so early and they are still working on the story in the back but shouldn’t take much longer. I didn’t say anything but it was odd to me because it’s not a story but an event that should’ve already been recorded when it happened by their safety, first responders and witnesses. I know this from my 12+ years experience working for a trucking company as a driver and in dispatch for the same company, and I know most of the procedures to an event like this.
  
  While we were waiting, Pam waited with us. We asked her what she knew about the incident.. She said that all she knows is that our father was found by someone, somewhere in the plant without a heartbeat, and they are not sure for how long he was laying like that. The story that Pamela told my sister and I didn’t make much sense because it was cold that morning (48°F), and our father knew he’s not allowed to wander around in a plant at night by himself, he did many other shipments before the delivery from 5/11/2023. She kept avoiding other questions related to the incident by saying that we will have the rapport soon; she even changed the subject and told us how she lost her son to Covid.

• Shortly after, a younger lady that presented herself as the Head of GM Tonawanda Safety comes out from the same door Pamela came from.. with a security guard, informing us that they will take us to recover the truck. We took the security car to the truck, and on our way there, they instructed us that after we recover the truck, we have to strictly follow them back to the office to give us the rapport because of the plant safety and regulations.
  
  The head of security, just like Pam, also tried to avoid answering our questions about what happened that night, telling us about the plant history and how that particular plant helped with the world war building for the army which was odd to us because we kept asking about what happened to our father but she kept avoiding answering mentioning every-time that everything is in writing and waiting for us when we come back. The safety manager seemed slightly annoyed of being questioned but also briefly mentioned the same story Pamela Bayers told us.. ”Someone found him, but we don’t know for how long he was laying somewhere in the plant without a heartbeat” I asked who found him and where, but she avoided answering by mentioning the rapport again.

• Once we arrived at the truck, which was clearly not slowing down their workflow because it wasn’t blocking the docs; it was backed up on the side of the building about 200 feet away from the docks. We looked around the truck, and we were preparing to leave when my sister told me to wait! “Can’t you see that guy running towards us waving and screaming?” I was tired from working my night-shift, and I didn’t notice him, but we waited.

• When the safety manager saw the witness running towards us, she started rushing us to leave, saying “it’s not safe, trucks are passing by” but we said “No!, we wait to see what he has to say; maybe he saw something.” Pamela was completely quiet at this point and in shock; both Pam, and the Safety Manager looked really worried, looking at each other quietly. The security guard didn’t look so worried, he also didn’t talk much yet, probably he was oblivious to what was happening.

• This driver, a complete stranger to us, started running towards us from the docks, and the first thing he asked us with tears in his eyes was if we were the kids of the person who drove this truck, pointing towards the truck our father was driving. My sister and I said “Yes, why? Did you hear anything?” He said,“I feel so bad for you guys; I actually saw when it happened, and when he fell from the back of the truck, we rushed to help him right away.” My sister and I were shocked and asked him. “Please tell us more because ”they” (I was pointing towards Pam and the plant safety manager) told us that he was found in the plant by someone.” Hearing this, he managed to say, “We saw how he felt from the truck, when he was unloading the pallets! All of us rushed from the docs, to help your father and gave him first aid right away, we stayed with him until the ambulance and police arrived…” That’s when he was abruptly interrupted by the safety manager threatening him in front of us, saying “Mr. Stephenson, you have a family; think about your future! We will sue you for defamation.” In the meantime, Mr. Stephenson, looking very angry, started screaming at them… “I’m an American citizen! It’s my freedom of speech! The kids have the right to know what happened to their father!” right after he said that, the security guard grabs him by the hand, pushes him away from us and whispered something in his ear that we couldn’t hear. I angrily asked Pam, “Why did you lie to us and said that our father was found somewhere in the plant?” Pam did not speak anymore; she just distanced herself and started walking towards the security car, looking scared and upset. After the security guard, more then likely whispered threats to Mr. Stephenson, visibly saddened and moving slowly towards us said.”I’m really sorry guys, I wanted to tell you what happened to your father, but I’m not allowed”. and then walks to his truck, which was not parked at the docks. When I asked to see the video footage, pointing towards the cameras from the building, the GM safety manager, frustrated, ripped a piece of paper from her notebook with the address from the police station written on it, telling us, “We are in contact with the police, they have more information and the video footage. They were here!”

• We took the piece of paper from her, relieved that the police has the video footage and we’ll find out the truth. Angrily, the Safety Manager told us to follow the security car and to leave now. The security guard started walking towards me, getting ready to grab me too but I told him not to touch me because we are going to the police to find out the truth. I got ready to punch him if he would’ve touch me. More then likely he noticed it, stepping back but was still following me from the distance to make sure I get in the truck.

• On our way out, we still expected to be taken back to the front office to receive the official rapport promised, but they guided us to the exit and told us again to leave and go to the police station. I was driving Joe’s truck, and my sister was driving her car towards Town of Tonawanda Police Dept. 1835 Sheridan Dr, Buffalo, NY 14223.

• Once we arrived at the police station, we were told to wait, but shortly after, a desk officer called us at the window. We told him who we were and why we were there. The officer looked confused; he told us that he heard something about it but they did not investigate nor interrogate any witnesses, and they didn’t take the video recordings from the plant because they didn’t think it was not important enough, and the ambulance was present helping my father.

• That was so shocking and infuriating, that it made me yell out loud. ”My father is in the hospital fighting for his life, and you didn’t do your job to investigate what happened!? You just went to the plant and then came back without doing anything?” I also informed him of what GM did to us in the plant just minutes ago and that we are suspecting them of covering up something they did wrong and we need the police to investigate and interrogate the multiple witnesses from the accident one of them still being there right now!

• Seeing how upset and angry we both were, the desk officer informed us to wait because he was going to talk to his supervisor. He comes back 5 minutes later and tells us that they didn’t write a rapport nor investigate what happened because it didn’t seem necessary. I noticed that the officer stopped looking me in the eyes but was annoyed for asking so many questions and for accusing them of not doing their job. I raised my voice to him and screamed“This didn’t seem necessary enough for you to do your job and ask questions when you were called in!?”’ Showing him a picture with our father from the hospital. At that point I almost lost it, and almost got myself into trouble with the Town of Tonawanda Police, because I started being really angry and almost started swearing at the desk officer for their ”incompetence” In my honest opinion they didn’t do anything because, they either got bribed or did a favor to GM and not because incompetence. The desk officer acted clueless and strange when we asked for the rapport, video footage or to go investigate the witnesses.

• On 5/12/2023 I texted Joe about everything that happened, and I asked him to save the phone recordings from when GM told him that our father was hit in the head by a strap, Joe ignored my message for a couple of days, writing back on 5/14/2023 to congratulate us hearing from my sister that, “Our father woke-up”, completely ignoring my request for the phone recordings. I asked him again to save the recordings, and if he’s willing to testify to what he was told by GM when they called in the accident, but he said… “Our phones are not recorded.”

• On Friday, 5/19/2023 10:57 AM, I sent Joe a message with a picture of the gas receipts for $160 from bringing his truck to MI and asked him to refund me. The next day at 8 AM. Joe texts me back that he is up north fishing and he will be back in a day or two, puts money in his account, and will refund me for the gas. Joe, Zelle me exactly $160 on 5/23/23.

• My sister and I started looking for lawyers and started calling multiple law firms on 5/13/2023, but no one dared to take on G.M’s ”army of lawyers” and refused us. Other law firms scared us that if we lose the case, GM will come after us for defamation and we can get in serious trouble.

• Joe (Joseph Braum) 734-351-9554 our father’s employer, all this time was also distancing and ignoring our requests just like G.M. He doesn’t want to admit what G.M told him over the phone about our father being hit in the head while unloading Arrow load 91761, more then likely because he let our father drive his truck with an expired medical card and more then likely he was also contacted by GM to keep quiet. My sister and I tried to contact him multiple times in order to file a claim with the insurance but he doesn’t answer back. Here is all of my sister’s conversation with Joe after the accident.
  5/11/2023 • 5/12/2023 • 5/13/2023 • 5/14/2023 • 5/15/2023 • 5/23/2023 • 1/28-29/2024
• My sister’s last message to Joe was on 1/24/2025 to provide the insurance information to which Joe, didn’t answer anymore.

• 2 GM Mert representatives waiting for us at Buffalo Mercy 5/11/2023 – Unknown
• Dock Witness willing to tell us the truth 5/12/2023 – I remember Mr. Stephenson, my sister remembers Mr. Hoffman the TQA driver, mentioned in the redacted accident rapport.

• Pamela Bayers (Ryder employee, and the first official from the plant to see us) 5/12/2023
• Safety Manager & Security Guard 5/12/2023 – Unknown
• Town of Tonawanda Police: 716-876-5300 1835 Sheridan Drive, Buffalo, NY 14223
• For some strange reason G.M. Tonawanda, decided to appoint Tara Wasik as “The Plant Director” on May 2023, the same month and year of the accident. Sourced from Tara Wasik LinkedIn.

• We finally received an email from Sean Z. Kelly Liability Claims on behalf of GM asking what exactly we want on 9/18/2024.
  I emailed Sean back on 10/29/2024 informing him that we want the the rapport, or, we are going to the news and FBI.
  After long delays, Sean Z. Kelly emailed us the official rapport on 11/18/2024 9:07 AM. Despite being aware that it’s urgent for us.
• 11/18/2024 I Contacted Mr. Radu Iacoban our personal lawyer, and scheduled an appointment with him on 11/18/2024. He advised me to file a claim with the insurance for wrongful death of my father. He also told me that he wishes to help me but this is a case that is too big for him.
• My sister and I started looking and calling lawyers again after seeing the accident rapport, and found Ralph C. Chapa, ”Kaufman, Payton & Chapa law-firm” interested to take our case on 11/20/2024. At the meeting with Mr. Ralph C. Chapa, he informed me that his law-firm is small to take on such a big case which happened in New York. He said we have a case, but we need more evidence or witnesses and also mentioned that he would help us get the video footage from Tonawanda Police using Freedom of Information Act.
• 1/16/2025 Mr. Daniel Schell from Kaufman, Payton & Chapa filed a request to Tonawanda Police Department using FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) to provide the police reports, 911 recordings or transcripts, witness statements, video recordings, investigation report.
• 1/16/2025 Daniel Schell (Tonawanda PD External Records) writes back to the law-firm that they did not have any injury reported at Tonawanda plant on 5/11/2023 but misspelled our father’s name in his search for the records.
• Feb 3^rd 2025 – Contacted OSCHA via eMail and phone but they told me that they cannot do anything because it passed too long from the accident.
• January 27th 2025 – Contacted FBI leaving a brief explanation of the accident, (Due to limited characters allowed) left my phone number and email but was not contacted back.
• On 2/7/2025 I bought, ioansuiugan.com and on 2/11/2025 started learning how to build a websites using Hostinger and WordPress, to expose in detail the events and go public.
• On 5/3 2025 I rented a car, asked a friend to help me drive to NYC to the news stations and to expose our story to as many people in NYC as possible, maybe someone would help. The news-stations advised us to apply online and we didn’t have much success giving the flyers to people even though, I stapled $10 on each flyer, and I was telling people free money and it’s for a good cause.. only a few took them.

The main reason why we were not able to seek justice, was because G.M. Tonawanda N.Y. delayed providing the accident report, despite my sister and I arriving at the plant to get the accident report on 5/12 2023, we were lied to, and falsely informed by the Tonawanda Safety Manager,that the police has our report We only received the accident report on 11/18 2024 one year and 5 months after the accident! after multiple requests via phone calls.

After the accident, I stayed with my father in N.Y to help him remember and to keep my family informed of his progress. I was also afraid they might kill him in the hospital because GM Medical insisted multiple times we should unplug him and were kind of annoyed when we decided not to. Staying with my father in N.Y also affected my job and I completely stopped working on side job of fixing & selling laptops. I had to work from away, my employer did let me work from away for a while, but I had to go back to the office. I went from MI to NY about 6 times while he was hospitalized in Buffalo, my car even broke down the last time I arrived in NY, the breaks failed and I stopped in a fence. The first time I went back to Michigan was just to get my gun, to be able to defend myself, and family. They were capable of stopping the police to do their job and made false medical assessments, they seemed very dangerous and eager to cover their mistakes and lies.

In the beginning it was also a lot of fear; GM personnel threatened the witness and us in the plant with lawyers and defamation; Buffalo Police was present but did not interrogate witnesses, write a rapport or take any video footage. GM medical staff lied to the EMS and both NY hospitals, also lied to us too at Buffalo Mercy Hospital, insisting ”we should unplug him”. Only someone heartless and powerful with a lot of courage and a lot to loose would decide and orchestrate something like this.

I’m almost certain but not 100% sure, GM hired people or detectives to spy on us or tried to intimidate me… One night, 4/3/2024, I started noticing someone spying on me at the office. The guy was backed up in the parking lot, across the street facing my office building, always kept the engine running, lights off and never left the truck, for a few nights in a row. The guy was not hiding that well either… I start work at 9PM, he would arrive around 10PM “watching with binoculars at my office entrance where my car was parked” in the middle of the night, and would leave around 1AM. Working the night-shift, and at the same office for over 10 years, it was really easy for me to spot him because the parking lot he was watching me from was always empty at night. After I first noticed him, I pretended I was unaware of his presence and I started sneaking around the building and started watching him too with my binoculars. He was a black man, well built, in his mid to late 40’s and had a burgundy newer GMC SUV. I managed to take a few blurry pictures before he speed off. Picture 1 • Picture 2 • Picture 3. I called Farmington Hills Police because of how suspicious he looked, but they didn’t catch him, despite seeing the police units arriving in the parking lot where the spy was, less then 5 minutes after my 911 call. The guy dropped his binoculars and left quickly when he saw me making a call and walking towards his truck looking through my binoculars. I was walking towards him, trying to give the police the number plates and more details but the police stopped me saying he might have a gun and might be dangerous, and I should go back into my office and let the police do their job. Despite the 911 warnings, I still stayed outside the office at the second entrance, watching and hoping the police will catch him but they didn’t, they arrived too late. He never showed up again after I called the police, but also my office moved to a different city about a month after that incident.

Another reason for letting some time pass was in order for them to relax and pay the bribes to the people involved in this cover-up / work-related accident. All the authorities have to do now is to follow the money trail or job promotions after the accident. It’s a “strange” coincidence how G.M. Tonawanda named Tara Wasik the “Plant Director on May 2023” the same month and year that the accident happened. This definitely seems like bribery or blackmail for the people GM officials involved, They are corrupt! Who would risk their career or freedom for free? Someone higher up in that plant decided that it is better for them to lie to us about what really happened to our father in order for them to get away from looking bad in the news and avoid a lawsuit from the family.

Seeing our father suffer tremendously after the accident and seeing us stress and struggle so much to care for him, caused our mother a stroke on 1/9/2024 and left her paralyzed on her left side, shortening her lifespan considerably. That’s another reason for postponing pursuing justice, I had to travel to Romania on July 16^th 2024 to bring my mom to the USA. Once I came back to the U.S. I started looking for other lawyers because Morgan & Morgan decided to drop our case while I was in Europe.

This tragedy caused our grandmother, Ioan Suiugan’s mother, so much pain and sorrow, that her health started to decline rapidly after witnessing her son’s passing. Grandma’ was hospitalized multiple times and she was sad beyond imagination having to witness her child not being able to walk, talk, eat, recognize her or do anything like before the accident. She passed away with her heart broken, one year after she buried her son, Ioan Suiugan. We buried our grandma’ on 2/19/2025, on my birthday.

We avoided going public, because we didn’t want to show how badly our father got after the accident and how much pain he suffered. It was so painful seeing him suffer every day for over 8 months before his passing, being paralyzed from waist down, using a catheter to urinate, wearing diapers, had a feeding tube connected to his stomach, he didn’t know how to eat anymore nor felt any taste. He was wearing mittens and was tied to the hospital beds because he wasn’t aware of what happened to him and would pull on the feeding tube or catheter, panicking not knowing he’s in a hospital. He also got infected with antibiotic-resistant urinary tract infection (UTI) at Trinity Hospital in Livonia, shortly after he was infected with the UTI, Trinity also wanted him out of their hospital. He was drugged with high amounts of sedatives at Beaumont Hospital in Farmington Hills because “they didn’t know what else to do.” despite my father’s health improving considerably after his first week at Beaumont… When our father was too ”difficult” for the hospitals to handle they just wanted him out, one doctor from Beaumont even advised my sister and I to ”find a hospice and he will be sedate until he passes away, because our father cannot be their patient anymore!” To me, this ”advice” was so cruel and infuriating, that made me asked that doctor if he would do it to his father?! To which he answered, NO! We were lucky to have our aunt and cousins who took him at their nursing home every time he would get kicked out from the hospitals. We tried every day to help him remember who he is and who we are, explained numerous times what happened to him, but his brain was not processing any information due to the head trauma and not heart failure as GM said. He didn’t remember any family members or friends, he would speak a lot of nonsense and for a while he would speak in 3 different languages, one of which is Hungarian and we don’t understand it.

We called multiple lawyers to help us, but none had the courage to go against GM; some lawyers even warned us that GM is too powerful and we should be careful, until Morgan and Morgan, whom also dropped the case for no reason. I fear retaliation, but I also want to bring every single one involved to justice for their incompetence, ignorance, or involvement to cover the truth and not helping us at all, but quite distancing themselves and stalling providing the accident report. The first time we found out that our father fell on his head twice, and it was actually a brain injury/concussion, was on 11/18/2024, from a heavily redacted plant rapport… The only person with the dignity and courage to tell us the truth was Mr. Stephenson. We are thankful for proud American citizens like Mr. Stephenson, honest and courageous people like him is what made this country the greatest in the world! We wish him much health, we would like to thank him properly and personally for everything he did because we would’ve never found the truth but only the phony weird story GM came up with written by themselves behind closed doors, blaming our father for this tragedy.

This will be a nightmare that will follow our family for the rest of our life. Since I lost my father, I have anxiety, depression and regular random panic attacks, something that I don’t remember experiencing before. I started drinking heavily and started smoking a lot of marijuana to deal with the sorrow and to be able to fall asleep. I started having dark thoughts that if there’s no legal justice for our father, I’m afraid I’ll seek justice myself. The mistreatment our father received starting from that G.M. plant… the hospitals, police present that night, his employer and the pain he endured is something you hope it never happens to anyone else! No one deserves this kind of injustice in a civilized country like United States! We emigrated here for a better future, Ioan Suiugan kept us in school “O.C.C. in Farmington Hills, MI” when we first moved here, we took all the necessary steps in order to receive the Green-card which was not easy being Romanians, it took over 10 years to get approved and now we get treated like criminals when we seek information about what happened to our father? They denied us the truth from the beginning because they didn’t want him to get better and remember what happened. GM personnel misled us and the medical institutions. The GM Medical intentionally did not follow the correct initial medical procedures and first aid because in the medical files they do not mention that his head was put on cold right away to preserve the brain after the concussion. We found him unconscious and with bandages over his head but they said the bandages are just to hold the cables and they were treating him for heart failure!