Video: Moment Indian-origin Jashanpreet Singh rams truck into multiple cars in California traffic
The footage shows his red truck plowing through multiple vehicles, causing chaos on the highway. The crash killed three persons
A dashcam video captured the moment Indian-origin truck driver Jashanpreet Singh allegedly crashed his vehicle into several cars caught in slow-moving traffic in California, the United States. According to reports, Jashanpreet Singh was believed to be intoxicated at the time of the incident.
The footage shows his red truck plowing through multiple vehicles, causing chaos on the highway. The crash killed three persons.
Police said Jashanpreet Singh failed to apply the brakes as he approached the vehicles ahead, crashing straight into the traffic. They added that toxicology tests later confirmed he was impaired at the time of the incident.
The dashcam video also shows that the vehicle was not stopped even as it continued to come closer to the vehicles in front of it, resulting in the devastating crash that killed three.
Jashanpreet Singh has been arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. He is also said to have entered America illegally.
According to the reports, Jashanpreet Singh crossed the southern border of the US in 2022 and was released pending an immigration hearing.
He was not in lawful immigration status, the report said, quoting US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sources, adding that the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lodged an immigration detainer following his arrest.
Jashanpreet Singh was released under the Biden administration’s 2022 “alternatives to detention” policy, it said.
This marks the second case since August involving an Indian-origin truck driver accused of causing a fatal crash in the US.
What White House said
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the California road crash, saying that the Department of Transportation has already reviewed the matter and is looking into the circumstances surrounding the incident.
“As for this case in California, on October 22, ICE lodged an immigration detainer for this individual following his arrest by local authorities in California on charges of manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence. He killed three people.”
She continued: “And he first entered the United States in 2022 through the southern border. And he was released into our country by the previous administration. ICE has lodged a separate detainer for this individual. And these tragedies are following a disturbing pattern of these criminal illegal aliens being issued commercial vehicle licenses. The Department of Transportation is absolutely cracking down on that.”
On August 12, 28-year-old Harjinder Singh allegedly made an illegal U-turn in his tractor-trailer in Florida, triggering a collision that left three people dead. He has been charged with three counts of vehicular homicide.
Following the incident, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had announced a pause to all issuances of commercial truck driver work visas.
“The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on US roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers,” Rubio had posted on social media.
(With agency inputs)