A 21-year-old Indian trucker, Jashanpreet Singh, who entered the United States illegally, has been charged with vehicular manslaughter after a devastating crash in Southern California that left three people dead and four others injured, according to Fox News.
What has happened?
Singh, who was under the influence of drugs, drove his big rig into slow-moving traffic on the I-10 Freeway in San Bernardino County. Dashcam footage released by ABC7 shows Singh slamming into an SUV, without any attempt to apply brakes. The vehicle then went on to collide with other vehicles.
“It didn’t stop. It didn’t swerve. It didn’t make any kind of manoeuvres. It just went straight in,” one eyewitness was quoted by NBC Los Angeles as saying.
The witness added, “The truck rolled and veered to the right into the embankment, and I saw the truck driver jump out because it was on fire.”
According to several reports, the collision involved eight vehicles in total. The crash also injured a mechanic who was changing a tyre on the freeway. Following the accident, the westbound lanes of the freeway in Ontario were shut down for several hours.
Following the incident, authorities took him to the hospital for toxicology tests, and the result confirmed drug impairment.
“He was eventually transported to the hospital, and he was checked out by the medical staff,” CHP Officer Rodrigo Jimenez was quoted by ABC7 News as saying.
The officer added, “Our officers determined he was driving under the influence of drugs.”
Who is Jashanpreet Singh?
Singh reportedly entered the US illegally in 2022 through the southern border and had been living in Yuba City, Northern California. Border Patrol agents first encountered him in California’s El Centro Sector in March 2022, but he was released into the US interior under the Biden administration’s “alternatives to detention” policy, pending an immigration hearing, US media reported.
This has sparked a huge row over the issuance of a license to him, and United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (USICE) has lodged an immigration detainer following his arrest. It cannot be confirmed if he was driving with a valid license when he rammed his vehicle into several others.
‘He wanted to move out of India’
CBS News spoke to Singh’s friend, Gurjot Malhar, after the incident. He said that Singh had come to the US “to make dollars” and that he was a brother to him.
Malhar said he couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that someone he knew was charged with vehicular manslaughter.
“He’s an amazing guy. He would talk normally, happily, like always, with love and care,” Malhar said. “He was like a brother to me.”
“He wanted to move out of India. It’s gonna be hard to make dollars here. So, he wanted to keep going. His big step was trying to be a truck driver,” added Malhar.