A 21-year-old Indian national has been arrested in Southern California for causing a fiery crash that killed at least three people. He was driving an 18-wheeler truck under the influence.
The accused has been identified as Jashanpreet Singh. According to the police, Singh’s semi-truck plowed into slow-moving traffic on Interstate 10 in San Bernardino County, killing three people and injuring several others.
Dashcam footage revealed that the truck did not brake before the collision, while toxicology reports confirmed that Singh was under the influence of a substance at the time of the crash.
As per the Department of Homeland Security, Singh was not a lawful immigrant and that ICE has lodged a detainer following his arrest. He faces multiple charges,
including gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
Singh had illegally entered the US through the southern border in 2022 and was released under the Biden administration’s “alternatives to detention” policy while awaiting an immigration hearing, Fox News reported.
The incident occurs amid increasing scrutiny of commercial driver licensing standards for non-citizens. In August, another Indian national, Harjinder Singh, who had entered the US illegally in 2018 and obtained a California commercial driver’s license, was charged in Florida for a crash that also claimed three lives.
Recently, transportation secretary Sean Duffy criticised California for failing to enforce federal English proficiency requirements for truck drivers, warning that the federal government would withhold over $40 million in highway safety funds as a result.
